Anything familiar belongs to JE. All mistakes are mine. Back to Trenton we go!

Chapter 8

I can't believe I was heading home tomorrow! I was excited, nervous, sad, and about a million other different emotions. I was all packed up and ready to go. I was driving my car back and I had talked and bribed Diesel into driving the moving truck for me. I was spending the night at Jessica's tonight. I was going to miss her, Shawn, Kevin and Diesel so much; I would definitely be back to visit though. After I got my stuff moved in, I planned to go visit my family and then the bonds office. I don't know if I was ready to see Joe or Ranger so I decided to just wait until I ran into one of them.

The next morning I said my tearful goodbyes to everyone.

"Don't worry sweetheart. We won't become strangers. We'll keep in touch and visit each other." Shawn said.

"Yeah darling, and remember I'm coming next week to spend a few days with you and help get your house set up" said Kevin.

"I know, I'm just emotional." I said.

I gave them both hugs and kisses and Diesel and I got on the road.

Five and a half hours later we arrived at my new house. I was so excited! It was even cuter in person! The realtor met me there with the paper work I needed to sign and gave me the keys. Diesel and I unloaded all of the boxes and carried in all of the furniture. I arranged the downstairs furniture while Diesel put my bed together. We spent the rest of the day getting my house together, well I did anyway. Once all of the heavy lifting was done Diesel set up the television then sat on the couch watching dvds. I talked Diesel into going to the grocery store for some food then I made us dinner. It had been a long day so I decided to wait until tomorrow to visit people.

"Thanks for everything today Diesel" I said.

"No problem honey. Just don't tell anyone about it. Don't want anyone thinking I'm a nice guy" he said smiling.

I was beat and went to bed after dinner. I woke up hot and tangled around Diesel's body.

"What are you doing in my bed?" I asked as I poked him.

"You didn't really think I was going to sleep on the couch, did you honey?" I rolled my eyes.

I made us breakfast then Diesel left to drive back to Salem. I showered and got ready for the day, with a few extra swipes of mascara. First on the list were my parents.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum, where have you been?" my mother practical yelled at me as she opened the door.

"Gee mom, I missed you too" I said sarcastically as I walked in the house.

"How dare you just up and leave and not bother to call us for a whole year. Do you have any idea about what people have been saying about you?"

"No mom and I really don't care. This past year has been the best of my life. I'm home now though, and if you want me to visit then you're going to have to stop criticizing everything I do. If not then I won't come here anymore." I said. She just looked at me open mouthed in shock. Grandma Mazur broke the silence coming down the stairs.

"Well aint this a pip! Stephanie's back! It's about time. Things have been damn boring around here since you left baby girl. Welcome home!" Grandma said as she hugged me. God I missed her.

"Hey grandma thanks. I've missed you!" I said.

"Come on in the kitchen for some coffee cake and you can tell me all about your adventure" she said.

We all went into the kitchen and sat down. I told them about moving to Salem with Jessica and all about Shawn and Kevin and the bonds office.

"Are you back for good now or just visiting?" grandma asked.

"I'm back for good. I actually bought a house here." I said.

"A house?" my mother asked. "Really, how can you afford that? Are you getting married?"

"No mom, I told you, I've been going after high bond skips and I've saved up a good bit of money."

"Well aint that nice! I'm proud of you baby girl. When can I see your house?" grandma asked.

"Why don't you and mom and dad come over for dinner tomorrow night and see the house?" I asked.

"Dinner? Are you planning on ordering food in?" my mother asked.

"I plan on cooking the dinner" I said. "I've learned how to cook since I've been gone. Shawn taught me.

"Well I can't wait! How about we bring over dessert?" grandma said.

"That would be great. Thanks grandma." I said.

I gave them my address, said bye and that I would see them tomorrow and left. Now it was time to deal with Connie and Lula. This should be interesting. I figured I should at least show up with a peace offering so I stopped at the Tasty Pastry and got a dozen donuts. It took me 30 minutes to get through the bakery since I had to deal with everyone in there talking to me and questioning me about where I had been. I finally made it to the bonds office.

I barely made it in the door when Lula ran to me and wrapped me in a hug.

"Girlfriend you have no idea how much I've missed you" she said.

"Hey Steph, it's good to see you" said Connie.

"Hey guys thanks! It feels good to be home."

"You look hot girl. You been working out or something?" Lula said.

"Yeah Steph you do look good, and what's up with that Cayenne you pulled up in?" Connie said.

"And where have you been girlfriend? And are you here to stay?" Lula asked.

"Have you seen Joe or Ranger yet?" Connie asked.

"Slow down guys, I'll tell you everything." I said.

I spent the next hour explaining everything about why I left, where I went and what I've been up to the past year and that I was back for good and had bought a house.

"Wow, it sounds like you've done good for yourself Steph. I'm proud of you" Connie said.

"Yeah girl, I was really mad when you left but it was just because I was hurt that you didn't talk to me first. I understand why you did it though."

"Thanks guys!"

"Well look who it is. My ungrateful cousin who left me high and dry" said Vinnie walking into the office.

"Hi Vinnie, it's good to see you too" I said,

"Yeah, whatever. Are you coming back to work?" Vinnie asked.

"Yeah we still haven't found a decent replacement for you. Vinnie had to resort to begging Ranger to take on all the mid level skips for a while and Lula's been going after the low skips." Connie said.

"Okay I'll come back to work" I said. I was already planning on asking for my job back anyways.

"Great, give her all of the mid to high skips that Ranger didn't really want anyways and let him know he's off the hook." Vinnie said to Connie. "And get to work Steph. I'm bleeding money over here." Then Vinnie disappeared into his office and shut the door.

"You sure you want to start working right away?" Connie asked.

"Yeah why not? I've got nothing else going on." I said.

"Okay, just give me enough time to get the files ready for you. Ranger has the originals but I'll print out new ones for you."

"You sure he's not going to mind me taking over these skips?" I asked. The last thing I needed was to deal with an angry Ranger.

"Not at all. He didn't want them to begin with. He finally took them out of pity for Vinnie. He said they were low on his priority list so he probably hasn't even started on them yet. He should be in tomorrow, I'll let him know then he doesn't have to worry about them anymore." Connie said.

"Okay great."

Lula and I went to lunch while Connie got the files ready. It was nice to catch up with Lula, I've really missed her. We brought Connie back some food and I got the files from her. We agreed to have a girl's night this weekend and then I went home to look over the files. Connie had given me 10 files. Geez they really were behind. Rangers company normally only took skips that were worth $30,000 or more to them so that left me with everything under that. I decided to go after the highest paying skip first. Tucker Simpson arrested for armed robbery and shooting the store clerk in the knee was out on a $200,000 bond and was worth $20,000 to me. His address showed Stark Street. I called Lula and asked if she knew of him. She did she said she would call around and get back to me. I finished up unpacking things around the house while I waited. Lula called back an hour later and told me where to find him. It looked like the easiest way to catch him was at his apartment since he was usually home alone. He usually didn't make it home until midnight most times so I figured I'd wait until then. I looked through the rest of the files and saw a few of them were regulars so I decided to take care of them now.

Two hours later I walked into the bonds office and handed Connie 3 body receipts.

"Wow girl, you've been working hard today." Connie said.

"These were easy. They were my old regulars. They actually seemed happy to see me again." I said.

"Only you would have skips that were happy to see you" Connie laughed.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow." I said.

I decided to go shopping for some gym equipment for my basement. I picked out everything I needed for my home gym and they said it would be delivered tomorrow. Then I went home made some dinner then took a nap before it was time to go get Simpson.

Ranger's POV

My babe was back in town. Thank God. I couldn't wait to see her. I planned to go see her tomorrow. I figured she would end up at the bonds office at some point tomorrow and I could "run into" her there. I didn't want to look to desperate to have her back. Tank came into the office.

"Rangeman, we're caught up on all of the high bonds for Vinnie. Should we throw him a bone and catch some of these mid bonds for him?" Tank said.

"Yeah that's fine." I said.

"Okay, I have one that I know from dealing with him down on Stark. He should be easy. Want to go tonight?" Tank asked.

"Ok." I said.

We headed out that night around midnight for Stark Street.

"Who are we picking up?" I asked.

"Tucker Simpson" Tank said. Yeah I remember him.

We pulled up to his apartment building and parked. Before we even got out we saw Simpson walking towards the building about to go in when a woman dressed in all black came up to him. He took a few swings at her and she dodged them all then pushed him to the ground and shoved her knee in between his shoulder blades and cuffed him and shoved him towards her car. What the hell? Tank and I ran over to her, guns drawn. She had just shoved him into the back of her car and shut the door. I went to grab her arm and ask what the hell she was doing with my skip when before I knew it she turned around took my gun and pulled hers at the same time. She had my gun aimed at my head and the other aimed at Tank. I was about to attack her when I finally saw her face. Fuck! It was my babe! She looked so hot standing there in all black holding 2 guns.

Stephanie's POV

I was putting my skip into the car when I noticed two guys coming towards me. As one was about to grab me, I turned around and grabbed his gun and aimed his gun at him and my gun at the other guy. Shit! It was Ranger and Tank! They both recognized me at the same time. Ranger had his blank face on and Tank was doubled over laughing his ass off.

"Shit, sorry Ranger" I said handing him his gun back.