Unapologize

By: PricklySare

A/N: Thanks for all the amazing reviews you guys have given me! This story is my baby and it's coming together and I'm having a great time writing it.

M&M, you guys are the best. Without you, I'm not sure where I'd be. LOL Our conferences are the highlight of my night. LOL. This chapter's for you. :) Stayce, I appreciate you too!

I know this was supposed to have been posted last night, but things happened, which led to other things happening, until by the time I had a chance to post I was too tired and went to bed. LOL. I'm sorry for the delay.

Sare

Chapter 29: Agent Cassidy Makes His Move

Earlier...

Stepping out of the interrogation room the first person I saw was that worthless piece of cow shit, Lempprik. How he ever managed to get his hands on a badge I'll never know. Just looking at him made my skin crawl, and I wished for a bottle of bleach. There was something definitely not right about that man. "Limp prick," I said before he interrupted me.

"It's Lempprik, leeem-priiik, not a hard name," he said. I really expected him to stick his bulbous nose in the air and stomp his foot.

"I don't give a fuck what your name is. You will go in there and escort Ms. Plum to a phone to make her phone call. She's demanded her attorney," I told him.

I was hard pressed not to choke him when he snorted before saying, "That little bitch doesn't get a phone call. She's already made her phone call."

"Listen here, you worthless piece of shit. You will give Ms. Plum access to a phone, you will wipe that vile smirk off your face, and you will speak to her with respect. She is not your 'bitch' so stop acting like she is," I said, as I got right up in his face. His breath was rank; smelling like three week old garbage in the middle of a heat wave. I wanted to stop my tirade and give him a breath mint, but figured that would ruin the effect.

"I don't know where you learned the law at, but when she demands a lawyer, it's her legal right to have one. So, do your job before I make sure you don't have one." I watched as his eyes flashed with hate, and anger mottled his face an unattractive shade of red.

"I'm in charge of this case, and I'll run it anyway I see fit. As far as I'm concerned that bitch had her phone call, and her rights are none of your concern," he said, emphasizing each word with a fleshy finger poking into my chest.

Normally I would have broken his arm, but I held back. Now wasn't the time for violence; it wouldn't help get the Bombshell Bounty Hunter out of this mess. Instead, I settled for verbal anger. I could throw around the weight of my authority as well as I could throw around the two hundred pounds of physical weight I carried on my body. "You'll want to remove your finger, before I remove it for you," I said calmly, while looking at the piece of shit in front of me. "This might be your case now, but trust me, it won't be for long; and you don't want to piss in my pond. I guarantee you won't like what happens if you do." I turned and walked away before I actually did choke him, tossing over my shoulder, "Get her a lawyer now. I won't tell you again."

I spent the next several hours on the phone with my superiors, jumping through hoops and wading through endless amounts of red tape, trying to find the leverage I needed in order to take control of the case. I'd managed to throw my weight around when I'd first learned that Ms. Plum was being detained in this crap hole police station; my excuse had been a stretch at best and complete bullshit at its worst. After all, there was no way she would ever be considered a terrorist, but I took a gamble and decided to see if my bluff would work. As I figured, the cops in this podunk little town were clueless. Once they had identified the victim, and the knowledge that she worked for the government came to light, all I had to do was walk in. It didn't matter that she was nothing more than a glorified secretary; they didn't need to know that.

Ms. Stephanie Plum was quite a woman, and, honestly, I wasn't surprised that she was Ranger Manoso's one major weakness. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a lot of guys' weakness. There was just something about her that made you want to be her knight, while at the same time you knew she would never go down without a fight. When I first walked into the interrogation room I'd noticed her split lip and the bruises forming. At the time I hadn't really worried about where they'd come from, figuring that they had come from her work. I'd done my research on Ms. Plum, and she had definitely earned her nickname. Yet, for some reason I was no longer convinced that her injuries had come from a criminal, at least not one who didn't carry around a badge.

Looking at my watch I realized that it was three in the morning. Didn't look like I was going to be getting any sleep. I already didn't trust Lempprik, now I had reason to believe that he had also assaulted Ms. Plum. That really made my gut churn. With my suspicions eating away at me, I climbed into my car and headed back toward the police station. When I arrived I asked to be escorted back to see her and was told by a pimply faced officer, that didn't look old enough to even shave, let alone carry a gun, that Ms. Plum was not allowed visitors. I flashed him my badge and he visibly paled. "Sir, I'm sorry, but I can't allow you back to see her. You'll have to come back when Officer Lempprik is back on duty."

Anger and frustration had been bubbling in my gut since I'd found out that Ms. Plum had been arrested, and now I was fighting it back. It wouldn't do any good for me to lose my temper at the useless runt in front of me. I counted backward from fifteen before I spoke, "What time will Limp prick be back on duty?" I asked my disdain obvious as I said his name.

"Uhh, well...let me check," the young officer said. What the hell, do they hire these kids right out of junior high? He's probably scared of his own shadow. When the child cop looked back up from his desk I could see a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face. He was nervous. "Uh, Officer... I, uh... mean, Agent Cassidy... uh... Sir," he stuttered out. At the rate he was going Lempprik was going to be back on shift before he managed to spit it out.

"Yes?" I asked, crossing my arms across my chest in a stance that said today, kid.

"He's not back on duty until noon tomorrow," he said. Fuck.

"Did she get a chance to speak with her lawyer," I asked him, schooling my features in a friendlier smile than the one I previously had. I needed to make sure she was okay, and since he wasn't about to break the 'rules' that Lempprik had made, I needed to acquire information in other ways.

"I don't know. I got on at midnight and I haven't seen her. I would guess her lawyer will meet with her tomorrow, if they haven't already met."

I wanted to run my hands over my face but didn't want to show that kind of weakness. Instead I reached into my pocket and removed a card sliding it across the counter toward the kid. "Here's my card, if you see or hear anything...strange about Ms. Plum, give me a call," I told him before heading back into the early morning air. I needed to get some sleep, and then I'd get a fresh start on finding a way to get Ms. Stephanie Plum out of this hell hole.

I woke to the sun painting the sky a beautiful pink, the clock beside my bed confirmed what I already knew, it was morning and I'd barely slept. I'd finally made it to bed at four thirty and now it was just coming up on seven. Scrubbing my hands over my face I tossed back the sheets and headed for the shower. It was going to be a long day, and there was a lot of information I needed to access. My brain had been running nonstop on the drive back from the police station; something was dirty at the police station, and I was pretty sure it wasn't the coffee pot. Believing that, and having proof of that, were two completely different things. I needed proof, and once I had it I would find a way to take charge of the so called investigation.

Twenty minutes later I was showered, dressed, and drinking my first cup of coffee while I booted up my laptop. I had access to some of the best search programs ever invented. I could find out what people had for breakfast this morning if I really wanted to. There were definite upsides to working for Homeland Security. While I'd been in the shower I'd plotted out the way I was going to go about my research. The first person I was going to tear apart was Lempprik. I really didn't like that guy, and by the time he got back on duty I'd know him better than his mother. I knew there was something in his background, I didn't know what, but I'd learned long ago to trust my gut; and my gut was telling me that there was a closet full of skeletons hidden in his background. I just had to unearth them.

Point, set, match. You're going down, motherfucker. You can run, but you'll only die tired, you stupid piece of shit. After spending ten hours hunched over my laptop, alternately cursing it and whispering sweet nothings to it, I finally had something usable. It was just a little bit of information, and it was purely by luck that I'd found it; but like a loose thread, when I tugged on it, it unraveled to reveal all the information that he'd thought was so carefully hidden. Somewhere along the line, he'd gotten a friend with some pull, but that friend wasn't going to be able to cover his ass this time. I set new parameters for the next search. It was time to find out who this mysterious fixer of his was.

While the information on Lempprik printed out, I picked up the information I'd gathered earlier on Stephanie Plum, Ricardo Carlos "Ranger" Manoso, and his company, Rangeman. There was a lot of information for me to go through, so with files in hand I walked into my kitchen, grabbed a beer and cold left over pizza from the fridge and sat down to reacquaint myself with my friend, and the woman who'd gotten under his skin.

The sun was shining when I rolled over and looked at my clock. Seven o'clock, again. I had gotten very little sleep for the second night in a row. I didn't even know this woman, and I was losing sleep over her. That's not entirely true, Cassidy. After last night, I probably knew Stephanie Plum better than just about anyone. I also knew that Ranger was in love with her, and that if I could figure that out then so could his handler. Now, that was one crazy chick. The government didn't care how crazy you were as long as you got the job done, and she was hell on wheels when it came to the job. Unfortunately, the government also didn't appreciate their operatives having meaningful relationships either.

In all the information I'd uncovered last night, the information on Stephanie was plentiful. The information on Ranger, well, that was practically non-existent. I understood why, but what I didn't understand was how I wasn't able to access it. Somehow the majority of his information was missing, like it had recently been wiped clean. A feeling ran through my body, it wasn't exactly a shiver, but it was a prickling sensation that made me realize something that was really, really, shitty. It looked like his life was slowly being erased; like he was being erased. Shit, man. What the hell did you do to piss off the government? I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were planning on neutralizing him. He must have done something seriously fucked up for them to want to remove their best operative.

None of this was making sense, and my gut was telling me that there was a deeper issue; and I'd bet my life that it was personal. Picking up my phone I dialed the number for Ranger's second in command, and really hoped I wasn't right about Ranger's life.

1 Prompt for BS June Challenge

words: 2120 without Title or A/N