Thanks for all of the reviews! Here's chapter 2, hope y'all enjoy it!

As always- anything familiar belongs to JE.

Chapter 2

I was driving down the interstate with the windows down and breeze blowing in my face. My old life was 5 hours behind me and it made me feel good. I felt free! No more pressure or guilt or crazies. I felt so good that I didn't even mind the cramp in my ass from driving so long. It had been a week since I had made my decision to leave Trenton. During that week I had tied up all loose ends. I managed to avoid Ranger and Joe since that night, but it wasn't that hard, I'm assuming they were probably avoiding me too. I caught the last of my outstanding skips and got paid for them. I got the insurance check from my blown up car. Thankfully my insurance company was use to me blowing up cars so it didn't take them too long to write me a check. I closed out my bank account and all of my credit cards. I packed up everything worth taking and carefully went through all of my purses and collected all of Ranger's trackers. I wrote letters to everyone explaining that I was leaving and to please not look for me and left a letter with my apartment keys for Dillion, the apartment building super, telling him I moved out and anything left in the apartment can go to charity. I bought a cheap red Nissan pick-up truck that I prayed would make it where I needed it to go. Thursday morning came and it was time for me to leave. I got up at 5, packed all of my stuff into the back of the truck and tucked Rex's cage next to me on the seat. I dropped all of the letters in a drop box at the post office to be delivered. I put Ranger's letter in a padded envelope along with all of his trackers. Then I hit the road.

I've been on the road for 5 hours and I was about an hour away from my destination, Salem, Massachusetts. I have a cousin that lives there named Jessica. Jessica and I were somewhat close growing up, and have kept in touch since she moved away. I didn't tell her I was coming in case it got back to my family. I figured it was best to surprise her. Jessica was 33 years old, a lawyer, and like me was married for about 2 seconds before she caught her husband with his secretary. She kept the house and he kept his 23 year old bimbo.

I made it to her house at 12 that afternoon. Jessica lived in a small house just outside of Salem, in a town called Marblehead. I knocked at the door and waited but she didn't answer it. I was walking back to my truck when I heard a man's voice.

"You looking for Jess?"

I turned around to find a tall, gorgeous, well built man with blond hair and green eyes.

"Yeah, I'm her cousin."

"I can see the family resemblance. You two could pass for sisters. Did she know you were coming? She's at work?"

Duh Stephanie! It's Thursday in the middle of the day, of course she's at work.

"Uh yeah, I should of thought of that. My work doesn't really have normal hours. I tend to forget most people work normal hours." I said.

"What do you do?" He asked.

"Bond enforcement agent."

"Bounty hunter huh, no shit?" he said sounding amused which pissed me off.

"What you think because I'm a girl that I'm not capable?" I said giving him my best burg glare.

"No sweetheart. I sound amused because I'm a bounty hunter too. My partner and I run a bonds office in Salem." He said. "I'm Kevin Rawlings by the way. I live next door to Jess."

"Stephanie Plum" I said, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too Stephanie. Jess isn't usually home until around 6. I would invite you into my house until then, but I'm on my way into town."

"That's fine, thanks anyways. Do you mind if I follow you into town? I'm not quite sure how to get there. I can just grab a bite to eat and shop until Jessica gets home." I said.

"Why don't you just ride into town with me?" he asked. He seemed nice enough and not crazy and I was sick of driving so I took his offer.

"Sure, thanks. Would you mind if I put my hamster, Rex in your house until we get back?"

"No, not a problem."

We got Rex settled in and got into his car.

"So where are you from Stephanie?" he asked.

"Trenton, New Jersey." I said.

"How long you been a bounty hunter?"

"3 years. How about you?"I asked.

"5 years. My partner, Shawn, and I were both in the Marines. After we got out we moved here to be close to his family. The bonds office was up for sale and we decided to buy it." He said. "Are you moving here? I noticed all your stuff in the back of your truck."

I didn't feel like getting into my mess of a life with a stranger so tried to brush off his question.

"Yeah, something like that." I said.

He seemed to understand I didn't want to talk anymore so we drove in silence after that. It took about 15 minutes to get into town. He parked in front of the bonds office. It was called Free At Last Bail Bonds. I found that kind of ironic considering that's how I felt about getting out of Trenton. I followed him inside and he introduced me to a very handsome man.

"Stephanie, this is my business and life partner, Shawn Abbot." Kevin said.

"Hi Stephanie. Nice to meet you." Shawn said looking at me like he was trying to read me and figure out who I was. Shawn was a few inches shorter than Kevin with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a muscular body.

"Hi, nice to meet you too" I said.

Kevin explained who I was and how we had met.

"So bounty hunter from New Jersey huh? Were you any good?" Shawn asked a little smugly. I'm not sure if I care for his attitude. Kevin definitely had the people skills in this relationship.

"I guess that depends on what you think is good. I've been a bounty hunter for 3 years and my capture rate is 99%." I said with a sweet smile. Kevin gave me a huge grin showing off dimples he has in his cheeks. OMG this man was so gorgeous!

Shawn just stared at me for a minute. "Not bad" he finally said.

"Well thanks for the ride Kevin. I'm going to get something to eat and walk around the shops a little bit. What time do you want me to meet you back here?"

"Let's meet back here at 5:30" he said.

"Okay, bye" I said, giving them both a finger wave and walking outside.

Their bonds office was at the end of a strip mall in the middle of the town center. There was shops and business up and down the road on either side so I decided to explore some. I was looking for somewhere to eat when I walked by a bakery called Dazzles. Hmm cake for lunch sounds good to me! So I decided to go in. I opened the door, walked in and bumped right into a hard muscular chest.

"Oh sorry.." I was saying as I looked up and saw that it was Diesel!

So.. what do you think? The chapter is a little boring but I'm trying to hurry the story along a little. All the mistakes are mine. I've never been to Salem, MA. So I'm going off of JE's Wicked Series and making up a little of my own.