Author's Note: Ahhhh! I'm back! Miss me! So sorry to everyone- there has been a lot going on since the last update I posted. First of all- school has been totalllllly kicking my ass! My semester is over on the 2nd then I get about 3 weeks off before my fall semester starts. For fall I will be even busier than I am now; I'm taking 13 credits and student mentoring for an online class. So I will try to utilize the weeks I have available to write! Today I really shouldn't even be writing- but I needed a good distraction from my 2 papers, test, and all the other stuff I have to do. So anyways!

**Also- I need help from you lovely readers! I want to know what you want to see happen. I don't mean who you want to see Steph end up with. I already have that decided; I mean- what do you want to see happen. I have received comments about the fact this story is so much like the books and it is annoying and I don't want to write anything you don't want to read! So if you like the way this is going let me know; if you want to see something else happen- let me know that too.

***Another thing I want to point out; I do write stories that are completely original. I have a problem just putting it up on the internet since- well it's the internet. However- if any of you are interested in reading an original treat by moi let me know =]

Disclaimer: You know what is mine and what is JE's.

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My eyes slowly opened and my body was in pain and I could feel ropes digging into my wrists and ankles; like a snake going in for the kill. My vision was blurred and I had no idea where I was as the room around me began to come into focus; I realized I was in a small room. I was tied with my arms around my back sitting in a chair, my ankles wrapped up around the legs. There was duct tape spread tightly over my mouth; what was going on? That's when it came back to me; I woke up and saw that face of the man I fought with the night Suzanne was being attacked… Wait, if he was in my house- Aly! I shot my eyes around the room as fast as I could but instead of Aly I saw Suzanne in the same situation I was in. Her eyes were closed and her head was hung- please don't let her be dead.

I didn't know where we were or who was out there but there was one thing I did know- there was no way in hell I was going down like this. We were getting out of here and I was going to find my daughter; my everything. There was no way to know how knotted up the ropes were behind my back but I knew I couldn't struggle. The more I pulled; the tighter the ropes would become. And not only would that make it more difficult for me to get out, the ropes would also dig deeper into my already burning wrists. Gently my wrists started moving feeling for any sort of looseness in the ropes. While I worked my wrists Suzanne's eyes shot open and stared at me; pleading for something- but my telepathy skills weren't up to snuff. Besides I didn't know how much time we had before the attacker came back. Turned out we didn't have long at all, a few minutes later the door to the small room opened and the masked man stepped through and even by though I could only see his eyes- it was clear he was enjoying this.

"I think we will start by taking off the duct tape, obviously you were drugged so I wasn't worried about you saying anything. But I do have to admit I have always wanted to rip tape off someone's mouth and it certainly is my lucky day because now I get to do this twice." He stepped over to Suzanne and the anger in his body was easy to read. His left hand wrapped into the hair on the back of her head and with his right he ripped as fast and with as much force as possible. Suzanne was a strong woman but even she couldn't hold back the scream; especially since I am sure he was yanking her hair with it. The attacker stepped away from her and seemed to relax as he turned to face me. He approached me like a lion approached their prey; slowly stalking to me. There was no longer a trace of anger in his eyes, he was enjoying himself.

"Your turn, beautiful." His hand moved to the back of my head but he slowly caressed my face as he did. My skin started crawling; he was turned on by seeing me tied up. Shit- when I was unconscious how do I know he didn't do anything more than tie me to a chair. Like ripping off a band aid; the tape was off leaving a burning sensation over my skin.

"Hush, beautiful."

"Where is she!" I screamed as loud as I could; hoping more than anything there was someone around us that would hear.

"Who pretell are you asking about?"

"You know who! My daughter!" I continued to answer in screams that burned my throat.

"Oh come now, we have more important things to discuss. My business first is with this little bitch." The words came out of his mouth like acid as he turned his attention to Suzanne. She looked up to meet his gaze; her eyes red from tears that she was managing to hold back.

"Who are you?"

"Let's play a game. I shall provide you with clues and if you guess right; I will reveal myself." Suzanne sat in silence her eyes focused intensely on the masked man.

"We go way back, and between the two of us; I was supposed to be successful. Your pathetic excuses for artwork have always blinded people from seeing the real talent- which was me." I could see her struggling to understand what he meant.

"From day one you have been out to destroy my life; and now I am simply returning the favor." The light bulb went on in Suzanne's mind and her eyes opened wider than I ever thought was possible.

"Louie?"

"Ding ding ding!" He pulled off the ski mask revealing his extremely unattractive face. I almost shouted for him to put the mask back on; but while they were busy rehashing the past- I was making progress with these ropes. I needed to keep them talking.

"What the hell- how in the hell did I ruin your life?"

"Well I will start from the beginning since your lovely friend here doesn't know the story." Suzanne's eyes darted to me and I gave her a slight nod sending every sort of silent clue I could that I needed her to keep going.

"Fine, I'd like to hear your side of this crazy story." Yes! She caught on; and it was enough to send Louie on the beginning of what I prayed would be a long story.

"You transferred to my school and into my class in the third grade; do you remember?" Suzanne simply nodded.

"Well you were all alone and so I started talking to you. But as soon as we entered the art classroom, which was my favorite place in the world to be- you took all of that away. The others were simply sorry for you because you were the new girl; but somehow you managed to trick them into thinking your work was pure art! As the school years went on and we were always stuck together you continued to cast your trickery over the eyes of everyone. They adored you and soon forgot all about me; I endured this all through high school while you outshined everyone. I knew though once you hit the real world you would come crumbling down and people would chew you up and spit you out. For years all seemed fine until a few years back I entered an art competition for a small cash prize and a spotlight in that month's local paper. I knew that was my moment to shine; until I saw the results and realized my name wasn't on the winner's page- but yours was. You had stolen first place, probably slept with the judges or something! But I knew as long as you were out there people would always be tricked into loving your work. I began creating the perfect plan to not only destroy you; but to destroy anything you were working on. If even after you were gone I had to deal with your stupid artwork I would go insane." I had to bite my tongue from telling him it was a little too late for the 'insane' bit.

"So all because I am better than you; you're going to kill me?" She snapped at him.

"You are not better than me!" Fury flamed throughout his eyes and his body was shaking.

"Apparently, I am! I spent every day trying to be great; you have spent every day trying to figure out how to eliminate the competition! "

"Humph, well I can't believe it took you so long to realize it was me! I practically told you my plan a year ago at your exhibit." I could see her once again searching through her memories before realizing what it was he was talking about.

"That was you?"

"I'm missing something." I added; these ropes were almost off- they couldn't finish now.

"Last year I had my first large art exhibit opening and it was the best moment of my life. I had many people come up to me and congratulate me; and Louie came up to talk to me. At first I couldn't place him, I knew I had seen him somewhere; but for all I knew I had seen him earlier that night walking around my show."

"Do you remember what I said?" Suzanne shook her head; it wasn't difficult to tell she was beyond irritated with this situation.

"I told you that you were living the dream and I hoped to one day be where you were. After listening to you babble for a few minutes I kissed your hand and told you we would meet again."

"So from that I was supposed to be ready for you to attack me!"

"It isn't my fault that you didn't recognize me."

"Who were the others in the basement? There was no way you were able to destroy my paintings and almost kill me in that short period of time."

"Just others that admire my work."

"Then what about Stephanie- why is she here!"

"Because she couldn't just stay home that night; she put herself in this situation."

"Well now what? You have us tied up- what is the next step in your big plan?" I asked, Suzanne shot me a look; wondering what I was thinking.

"Now you'll burn. I will set this place on fire and watch my problems go up in flames. Plus, I don't plan on letting you escape- I have waited too long for this moment to fail now."

"What about the paint!" I shouted before he could turn to leave. A slow cryptic smile spread across his face.

"You were a very clever girl; it's just too bad your moronic friend has the memory of an ant."

"What?"

"Damnit!" Both of us turned out attention to Suzanne who was shaking her head in frustration once again. "I can't believe I let all this shit slip through my fingers; in high school while I was once again dominating every single art class- Louie needed something to feel better about. He brought that kind of paint to school one day and told me that was professional grade, expensive and something a true artist used."

"Very good; too late though of course."

"No it's not- Ranger will be here soon and trust me; then you will wish you were burning with us." An evil chuckle that made a shiver run down my spine, escaped him.

"Ranger- is that the name of the big buff guy that sat in front of your house all night- every night?" My heart stopped-every night- Ranger had been on a constant surveillance watch of my house; and I never even knew. I fought back the lump rising in my throat- I couldn't let this freak know Ranger was called away to protect someone else.

"It sure is; and I promise he'll be on his way soon."

"I'm not too worried about that, beautiful. You see if you spend years waiting for one moment- you make sure it goes perfect. Never did you see me watching you; and while he was trying to watch out for me- I was watching him. And I do believe he was called away to go check up on one of his houses that was experiencing a break-in." No- it couldn't be. The call Ranger got- it was only a diversion so Louie was able to bring us here.

"You know; I would give you a lecture on leading on two men at once- but well, you'll be dead soon so it won't really matter." Louie once again stalked slowly toward me, he brushed his long greasy brown hair out of his eyes and moved in very close to me. The warmth of his breath was infuriating.

"It's too bad you know, if you would have stayed home- I could have shown you a much better time than those other two." It took every ounce of strength to not reach around and hit him- I needed to make sure he didn't retie my now free hands; that was our only chance of escaping. The need to strike him rose as he inched closer, inhaling a deep breath of my scent. I sat very still as his lips lowered to place a kiss on my neck but when he was close enough I reached my mouth over and bit his exposed neck as hard as I could.

"BITCH!" Louie shouted throwing one hand over his neck, and with the other he placed a powerful punch along the side of my face. Because I had been leaning away from him to avoid the strike; the force sent the me and the chair sideways onto the ground. Out of natural instincts I threw my right hand down to catch myself; instead I heard a loud crack and experienced a rush of pain worse than just about anything. Tears poured out of my eyes in response to the pain before I even registered what happened.

"Now I am glad you're here too. And just for that little stunt I will have to go back to the place I stashed her and make sure she pays."

"Don't you lay a FINGER on my daughter!" I screamed at the top of my lungs; a mix of hysteria, pain, and anger fueled my hate for this monster.

"I will take very good care of her; and don't bother escaping. Not only has the floor and walls of this building been doused with gasoline; the second I see a single body part move to leave- I'll shoot you. While I may not be the best shot- I have plenty of ammo; so I'm sure at least one of the bullets will finish you off."

Louie finally walked out of the room, and once the audible sound of the lock clicked into place came from the knob I moved my hands. My right wrist was clearly broken; but that wasn't going to stop me. I wasn't going to let us die like this; and there was no way he was going to touch my daughter.

"Ohmigod, Steph I am so so sorry! I can't believe how big of an idiot I was."

"It's okay- everything's going to be okay Suze."

"How can you say that?" She asked through the tears she could no longer hold back.

"Because I have daughter that is not growing up without a mother. And if that freak thinks I'm going to let him finish me off- well he certainly doesn't know anything about Stephanie Plum." Suzanne smiled despite the doubt in her eyes. The pain in my wrist was burning but I finally released my legs and immediately went for the ropes around her hands. Even with a gimp hand I was able to get her arms freed in a matter of seconds, but I let her untie her feet. I knew I could pick a lock- if I had a lot of time and a lot of patience; right now I had neither. There was only one way we were getting out; and I had seen Ranger do it dozens of times.

"Stand behind me in case I fall backwards." Suzanne did as I said and with every ounce of anger, and frustration I had welled up in me- I kicked hard at the door. Without even stumbling backwards the door flew open and the moment of excitement was cut drastically short as we saw the smoke and flames in the distance. It looked like an empty warehouse; we must have been in what used to be an office- the rest of the place was open. A majority of the small windows had rusted chains and locks on them except a couple in the distance. I wasn't naïve enough to think it was going to be that easy to get out, the smoking was starting to find its way into my lungs. We both threw the sleeve of our shirt over our nose and mouth to help in anyway possible.

"Do you trust me?" I asked her; there was only one way I could see us getting out.

"Yes!" She cried back; Suzanne was no baby- but this was not a normal situation for her to be in. She tried to conjure up whatever courage she could.

"Go stand by that window without the lock on it. I will create a distraction that will make him come after me; you need to get yourself out of that window- and run. Run for help- get yourself as far away as you possibly can."

"What about you!"

"I have a plan, trust me." She nodded and threw her arms around me in a quick hug before running off to the window I pointed to. There was a regular looking door adjacent to the window Suzanne was waiting at. I climbed the couple steps and pressed by back against the railing- summoning my inner Ranger before once again kicking my leg into the door. Thank God! The door flew open and made a large noise; I looked over at Suzanne and as soon as I saw her pull herself up I knew my plan was working. I hoped to get a chance to run to that same window; but until I knew Suzanne was successfully out I would have to keep Louie distracted. I heard footsteps closing in on where I was so I quickly ran down the steps in the opposite direction of where Suzanne was still climbing out. Louie yelled something as he entered through the door, and a few bullets flew past me. At least he was after me, my joy was short-lived when a bullet struck my leg sending me into the ground. Well at least this time my wrist didn't break my fall- my face did. The adrenaline pulsing through my broken body was the only thing keeping me going. I flipped my body over so I was now looking up into a massive cloud of smoke; and Louie's silhouette emerging staring me down. It was like the smoke wasn't effecting him; he stared down at me his eyes were piercingly evil.

"I'm sure you got that little bitch out, but don't worry- I will get her. You however, will die right here leaving your little girl and everyone else's fate resting solely in my hands." I pressed my body weight into the left side of my body and swung my right leg with all my might into his legs. Louie crashed to the ground dropping the gun, it was just out of reach of both of us. Broken wrist, bruised body, bullet in my leg aside- I was getting to that gun. I army crawled and the second my hand was held tight around the gun I whipped my body around to face Louie and pulled the trigger. I unloaded 3 bullets into his chest and I knew he was dead; but around me the fire was gaining power. I vaguely noticed the sprinklers on the ceiling sending down liquid- but I doubted it was helping any.

The threat of Louie was gone, but I still needed to get out before my body gave out on me. My leg was throbbing with pain as was my wrist; so I resorted to army crawling towards the door moving as fast as I could. The heat from the flames licked up and down at my broken body and the smoke filled my lungs making it feel like someone had thrown an anchor into my chest. I couldn't move anymore; my body wasn't responding and my consciousness was fading away as I lay there.

They say before you die your life flashes before your eyes; my thoughts only went to Aly- praying someone found her. Then as if the smoke was inhibiting my mind to truly see things clearly- I saw it; my future. It was the future I longed for watching my baby girl grow into an amazing, stubborn, independent woman- but there he was. Finally I saw who it was I wanted; who it was I needed- I had known all along. I shut my eyes letting myself bask in the presence of the one I loved before consciousness faded completely.