We're back to Stephanie in this chapter. Anything familiar belongs to JE. All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 5

It was Friday afternoon and I was sitting in a diner waiting on my food to arrive. I just left the bonds office after talking to the guys about me working for them. My phone rang. I looked at it, Lula. Then it hit me. Shit! I quickly took the battery out of my phone. How did I forget about my cell phone? Hopefully they wouldn't be able to track it now. I'd throw it away and get myself one of those prepaid phones for now. My food arrived and I ate while thinking about Shawn's conditions for me to work for him. They said I would have to get into shape and learn how to defend myself and get more comfortable with a gun. Kevin was going to help me with exercising and self defense training and Shawn was going to work on me with guns. The only good thing they told me was that they weren't going to mess with my diet, but Shawn did offer to teach me how to cook if I was interested. Shawn told me I could help with office work until they deemed me fit to go after skips. Training started tomorrow morning. I can't believe I actually agreed to this. Maybe I should just tell them no and apply for a job here as a waitress. No Stephanie! It's time to grow up and take charge of my life.

After I ate I walked outside and threw my phone in the trash. I drove to the nearest grocery store and stocked up on the essentials bread, peanut butter, olives, chips, Tastykakes, ice cream, and a few other things. I also grabbed some grapes and carrots, for Rex of course, not for me. I also grabbed a prepaid phone. I went back to Jess's house and put the food away and sat down to watch tv. I was feeling lonely; I was missing my friends and family. Since Diesel was the only familiar person I knew here I decided to call him. I had to search through my purse to find the piece of paper he wrote his number on. You'd think I'd be able to remember three numbers. Finally I found it and called him.

"Hello"

"Hey Diesel , it's Stephanie. You free tonight?"

"Missing me already honey?"

"Oh yeah baby" I said in my flirty voice. That got a laugh out of Diesel.

"Okay how bout I pick you up at 7 and we can get some dinner?" he asked.

"Sounds good, let me give you the address" I said.

"No need, I already know it."

I was going to ask how, but it's Diesel were talking about, so it was probably best not to know. A lot of things about Diesel were unexplainable.

"Ok see you then." I said and hung up.

I watched Ghostbusters, unpacked the rest of my stuff then took a shower. After my shower I walked back into my room with a towel wrapped around me and stop abruptly when I saw Diesel lying on my bed.

"What the hell? You scared the crap out of me" I yelled.

"Sorry honey, I got here early and you were in the shower. Thought I'd make myself comfortable. You're welcome to join me on the bed" he said smiling at me.

I rolled my eyes at and grabbed some clothes. I walked back to the bathroom and got dressed and finished getting ready.

We got into Diesel's Ford Explorer and headed to dinner.

"Where's Carl?" I asked.

"I found him a babysitter for the night. I didn't want to corrupt his mind, in case you lost control of yourself and ripped my clothes off."

"Sorry not going to happen" I said, "I'm done with men".

"Your loss" he said. Then his phone rang, he had a short conversation then hung up.

"Wulf's been spotted. We're going to make it a dinner on the go." Diesel said.

"No, no, no!" I said. "I'm done with Wulf. Bring me home first."

"I can't darling, no time. You'll be fine." Crap!

Diesel swung through a drive through and got us burgers, fries and milkshakes. He jumped on the interstate and I ate my food.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Town called Beverly. I think Wulf's going after someone. I need to know who and what he's up to."

About 30 minutes later Diesel told me to keep an eye out for a place called Kippers Pub. Turns out it wasn't that hard to find because there were cop cars surrounding the place.

"This looks fun. Stay here; I'll be right back" he said as he walked off.

Getting back into the SUV he said "Wulf was here. They found a dead guy behind the bar, handprints burned on his neck." I felt my dinner coming back up. Wulf scared the crap out of me. I've been kidnapped by him before. I wanted to stay far away from Wulf.

"Okay we found him" I said "Can we go home now?"

"Sure, I'll take you home now, as long as you'll share your bed with me?" That was tempting. I definitely wanted to stay away from Wulf, and Diesel in my bed didn't sound that bad.

"Really?" I said. Diesel gave a big wolf grin.

"No, I was lying. It's good to know you're interested though."

"Jerk!"

"You can't stay mad at me. I'm too cute."

I rolled my eyes. "Where are we going then? You know where Wulf went?"

"We didn't show up to long after he left. Flash is following him on the interstate. We're going to join the chase." I remember Flash from working with Diesel before.

An hour later we pulled up to an old warehouse. It was dark out and there was only one small light attached to the warehouse that was on. There was a black Ferrari parked outside. My spidey senses were tingling.

"I'm assuming that's Wulf's car. Where's Flash?" I asked.

"He turned around. He had somewhere else to be. I'm going to look around. You coming?"

"Me? Nuh uh, no way. You're on your own. I'm staying right here."

"Suit yourself. I'll be back."

Ten minutes later I was bored and starting to worry about Diesel. I got out of the SUV and walked towards the warehouse. I only got a couple steps before someone grabbed my arm and twirled me around. Shit! Wulf!

"Ms. Plum, how nice to see you again. I see you and my cousin still can't seem to stay out of my business. I'm going to need you to come with me" he said gripping my arm harder and sending sparks of electricity up my arm.

"Gee thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just go back to the car and wait for Diesel" I said trying to walk away.

"Now!" he said dragging me towards his car.

Diesel came running around the corner of the warehouse and spotted up.

"Let her go" He said.

I felt a sudden burning pain on my arm, and then Wulf released my arm and then walked towards his car.

"Let that be a warning Ms. Plum and this isn't over cousin." Wulf said and then he drove off.

I looked at my arm, I had his handprint burned into my skin.

"I'm not feeling so good" I said.

"It's ok honey, I got you." Diesel said. He picked me up and put me in the SUV. He drove to the nearest pharmacy and went inside. He came back and handed me a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and a plastic spoon. Then he took out a tube of some kind of cream and rubbed it onto my burn.

"Feeling better now?" he asked.

"A little" I said in between spoons full of ice cream.

We drove back home in silence. It was close to midnight by the time he dropped me off. I was supposed to meet Kevin at 5 a.m. to start my training. Crap. I set my alarm and crawled into bed falling asleep instantly.

My alarm went off at 4:45 and I seriously wanted to throw it out the window but I managed to talk myself into getting out of bed. This was the start of new Stephanie right? I can do this! I gave myself a little pep talk while I dressed in sweats, a t-shirt and sneakers. I threw my hair in a quick pony tail, brushed my teeth and went outside to meet Kevin.

Kevin was already waiting for me outside. He looked a little startled when he saw me. I guess I'm a little scary looking. Probably should have spent a little more time getting ready I thought.

"Not a morning person are you?" he said smiling. I gave him the finger.

"Be nice. I'm the one in charge of your exercise today. I could make you run and extra 3 miles." He was joking, I think. I hope.

"Sorry, I didn't get very much sleep last night." I said.

"Hot date? I saw you leave with a sexy blond guy last night."

"Definitely not a date."

"Then why were you out so late with him last night? I know what I would have been doing with someone that hot" he said.

That made me smile. I told him about my night and he asked how I knew Diesel so I told him about my history with him.

"Wait a minute" he said when I was done. "You're telling me some random guy shows up in your apartment one morning , tells you that he's not exactly human and instead of calling the cops, you help him and let sleep in your apartment?" he said with a shocked look on his face.

"Well in my defense, I've had people a lot crazy then Diesel break into my apartment. He didn't seem too bad. I once had a skip, who was a little person, move into my apartment against my will. He blamed me for breaking the door on his apartment. He lived with me until his door was fixed." I said that it was no big deal.

Kevin was just looking at me in disbelief. I think he was trying to figure out if I was joking or not.

"My life's not normal" I said.

"No shit darling. I think that's an understatement."

I just shrugged. "So are we exercising or what? If not I'm crawling back into bed."

An hour later we were back at the house. I was drenched in sweat and felt like I was going to puke My arm was killing me from where Wulf burned me. Despite all that though, I had actually managed to run for an hour straight. Go me!

"Why don't you get cleaned up then come over to my house for breakfast" Kevin said.

"Okay, thanks. See you in a bit" I said.

I was sitting at Kevin and Shawn's kitchen table with them. Shawn had just finished making omelets. I took my first bite of it and moaned a little. I heard Kevin snicker, I looked up. They were both staring at me with amused expressions. Okay maybe I moaned a lot. It was a really good omelet!

"What? Oh sorry, I love food. I tend to moan when I eat good food and this omelet is amazing!" I said.

"Sweetheart, I'll cook for you anytime, just to be able to watch you eat." Shawn said.

"Shit, I'm gay and I'm still a little turned on. How do straight men make it through a meal with you?" Kevin said. I knew I was blushing.

"Shawn if you can make an omelet taste this good, I would love to see what else you cook. Can I take you up on the offer to teach me to cook?" I asked. It was definitely time for me to learn how to cook.

"Absolutely sweetheart." He said smiling.

After breakfast it was Shawn's turn to train me. He took me to a shooting range and made me try out a few different guns. I decided I liked the Glock 19 better than my Smith & Weston. It was a semi-automatic and easier for me to shoot. He showed me everything I needed to know about the gun. He helped me with shooting and practicing my aim. He also made me practice loading it.

"You did good. You're better than I thought you would be." Shawn said as we were walking to the car.

"Thanks" I said.

"We'll practice 3 times a week until you get more comfortable. I'll also teach you how to take apart and reassemble the gun." Yay, something to look forward to, I thought.

He dropped me off at home. "I have to head to the office. If you want to come over tomorrow night, I can give you your first cooking lesson. I always cook a big Sunday night dinner."

"Sure" I said "Sounds good, thanks!"

I started walking to the house when Kevin came outside.

"Where do you think you're going" he asked.

"Inside for a nap" I said.

"Nope, change your clothes and come over; time for me to teach you some hand to hand combat and defense moves."

"Ugh, now?" I said in my whiny voice.

"Yup." Great!

I worked with Kevin for almost 2 hours before he let me go home. It was hard, but kind of fun. He taught me how to get out of certain holds and defend myself. Now I could do more than just kick my assailant in the nuts. I sat on the couch and must have fallen asleep. I woke up to the smell of pizza, Christmas, and monkey.

"Hey honey" Diesel said walking into the living room. "I brought pizza."

"Thanks. Why do you always smell like Christmas?"

"Part of being an unmentionable; it's a cosmic dust thing. Every unmentionable has a certain scent. Mine's Christmas because I was born on Christmas" he said shrugging.

"Really? I never knew your birthday was on Christmas."

Diesel gave a bark of laughter "No, I'm just messing with you. You'll believe anything". I punched him in the arm. Jerk.

"Come on" he said "Let's go get the pizza before Carl eats it all."

We ate pizza and watched a movie. It felt nice. I liked Diesel even if he was a little different. Hanging out with him was comfortable.

The next few weeks went on about the same way. I ran with Kevin every morning. Shawn had me at the gun range three times a week. Kevin taught me self-defense and even had me lifting weights four times a week. I started working in the office during the week, helping with paperwork and doing searches on the computer for the outstanding skips. My first day at the office Shawn had presented me with a new driver's license; my new name was Rebecca Stephanie Evans. I don't know how he got me a new I.D. but decided not to question it. He had even opened me a banking account in my new name. Diesel and I hung out a couple times a week; he was becoming a good friend. I didn't see Jess very much; we had dinner occasionally. She worked a lot. As promised Shawn was teaching me how to cook. He was a great teacher and I was actually getting pretty good at it. I still thought about Ranger a lot, especially at night, but it didn't hurt to think about him as much as it use to. Things were starting to fall into place in my life.

I walked into the office Monday morning feeling good. I ran 5 miles with Kevin this morning without feeling like I was going to puke. I actually enjoy running now.

"Good morning Shawn" I said.

"Morning sweetheart. Kevin and I were talking about you last night. We're impressed with how far you've come since you started training."

"Thanks Shawn, I feel great!"

"Good. Then you'll be happy to know that we've decided to let you start going after skips."

"Seriously? Yay! Thanks!"

"No problem; you've earned it. We still want you to keep training and we want you to go out with Kevin for the first few ones though. Is that okay?"

"Yeah that's fine!" I was so excited. I would actually be able to get out of the office. I've missed going after skips. I missed the adventure. Hopefully I can avoid crazies this time though.