Great reviews and comments, and naturally, lots of questions. As I said before, there will be things revealed during the story about a few of the characters.

I'm getting better at self editing. So, all mistakes are mine on this one!

Warning - Probably a tissue or two needed here.

Previously -

I glanced at Tank and he turned his head. I was ashamed that they both knew some of what I'd done to her. I was ashamed that Stephanie now knew the twisted behavior toward women that I was capable of. "And now I'm ashamed of those things I did, Lula. Please tell me why she's doing what she's doing."

"Sit yo ass down. I'm gonna tell you her story and then I'm leavin'. I can barely look at yo nasty Cuban ass. You ain't Batman to me no more, and you ain't no fuckin' hero."

Chapter 5

Lula sat down and dropped her big purse and asked Tank to get her a drink. He went to the fridge and grabbed some beers and came back, handing one to me and one to her. She took a big pull and started talking. "First thing she did after Bobby was killed, was quit her job with Vinnie. She told us those things Lester said to her that day. I have my own guilt about that day too. I was supposed to go with her, and I got a call for an opening at the salon to get my weave re-done. My weave. While a man was layin', dyin', I was at the beauty shop gettin' my damn hair done." She shook her head and took another pull on the beer.

"There was a story in the paper about that day, and the shooting, and it hinted at placing blame on her. But that was just the first story. She couldn't find work anywhere, not even to clean guts at the meat market, nothin' open at the factories. Rumors are powerful, and all them newspaper stories, I guess people was afraid to hire her. In the mean time, Morelli and her mother was puttin' a lot of pressure on her to marry. Then Rex died, and she took that personal. She was about to lose her apartment, and just gave up, and moved in with him. He didn't waste no time with you out of the picture. They flew to Vegas and had a quickie wedding. The only ones that was happy about it was him and her parents. His mother and crazy grandmother was over there all the time meddlin' and all up in their business. They criticized her for everything, housekeepin', cookin' skills, even the way she took care of Bob, the damn dog.

She kept tryin' to get a job even though Morelli really didn't want her to. He was tryin' his best to get her knocked up. Then he came in one day and caught her..."

She stopped and downed the rest of her beer and belched. Loudly. I looked up and Tank and he shrugged. I asked, "Caught her doing what?"

"She was takin' birth control. She was terrified of havin' a baby and bein' responsible for another human being. She believed what Lester said to her that day. She even thought she killed Rex."

I furrowed my brows. "That hamster must have been a hundred years old in rat years. How can she blame herself for an animal dying of old age?"

She glared at me. "How can you ask that? Everybody hatin' on her and leavin' her. Nobody wants to talk to her or give her a job. She ain't got things right in her head now. Morelli demanded she stop takin' the pills, and she cried and told him that she was afraid, and just couldn't have a baby. He told her she would do it or he would have the marriage annulled. That's exactly what he ended up doin' too. Not long after, he met a woman on the job. Single and new to Trenton. He told Stephanie that he was in love with the woman, and was sick of the way she'd done him over the years. Told her he not only knew about all the meetings in the alley with you, he knew she got with you more than once. Said he knew what you was up to in Hawaii, and still loved her even after she hurt him like that.

Then he turned on her, told her he was done with her crazy ass, and pitched her out with less than she had before they married. She gave away all her furniture from her apartment. Didn't have nothin' but her clothes."

She looked at Tank. "Get me another beer, please. I'm just gettin' to the hard part..."

The hard part? She was going to make me feel guiltier than I did now? Her relationship with me had caused her harm. Though I never wanted to admit it, we did have a relationship. We'd had a very good relationship and enjoyed being with one another. We had trusted each other. The cold realization that I had shattered even that memory for her was now hard to swallow.

Tank left and came back with three more beers. Lula took the beer and took a big drink and started again. "She stayed with her parents for a couple of weeks and then she got the tough love from them. Her Dad and her grandma gave her a little money to get herself a place. She was out lookin' for a job before she moved out and ran into that weasel from the newspaper that writes all those Bomber stories. He told her he was there that day Bobby died and heard everything Lester said. Told her he was gonna' write this story about Trenton's local celebrity tellin' the truth about the Bombshell Bounty Hunter, and what a phony she his. How dangerous, and irresponsible she really was, puttin' people's lives in danger, even the police that comes to assist her. She begged him not to print a story like that because she was havin' a hard time findin' a job in Trenton. You know she hates them stories, and don't give a damn about bein' no celebrity, but he don't know that and don't care."

She had tears in her eyes when she took a breath, and a drink of her beer. "He told her he would ditch the story if she would give him a hummer right there in the alley. She was desperate and she did it. That was the beginning, said she felt like a ho' already after that day."

I ran my hands down my face and Lula had tears rolling down her face. "I been that desperate before. I know how people just wanna' kick you when you're down," she said.

Tank got up at that point and began pacing. "Fucker printed that piece anyways. Her parents was angry, and embarrassed over that, on top of the marriage failing with Morelli. She knew then that she'd have to leave Trenton. She went to Newark and found that cheap place to live in that bad neighborhood. Bought a few pieces of shitty furniture at a Goodwill or some store like that. She tried makin' contact with people she used to work with there, and still couldn't find work. She tried fast food and was soon fired." She shook her head. "Mmm, mm. Didn't do much better with burgers than she did with clucky chicken."

She smiled a little, I guess thinking about Stephanie working with food. She took another drink of her beer and looked serious again. "Got a job after that as a checker at a gas station. About a month later, was walkin' home one night because she didn't have the money to even put gas in her car. She found somethin' in an alley next to a dumpster that shocked her and changed her."

I raised an eyebrow and Tank stopped pacing. I asked. "What was it?"

She shook her head. "Somebody had left a newborn baby layin' there like trash to die of starvation and exposure, and if that didn't get it, the rats would have. They was already movin' in, it still had the cord connected to it and was bleedin'."

Tank and I both reacted to that. "Jesus!"

"Jesús Cristo!"

She nodded. "She shooed them rats and snatched up the poor little thing, and ran home with it. Went knockin' on a neighbor door that had a kid, and the girl helped her. They tied off the cord and cleaned it up, then wrapped it up and fed it. The baby was a girl, light-skinned, probably mixed by the look of her, and her hair. The girl told her she could call social services, and somebody would pick it up. May or may not end up with a good home. Stephanie decided to think about it. She kept it too long, till she convinced herself that they needed each other, and that she could redeem herself for gettin' Bobby killed if she saved that little baby, and did right by it. Her thinkin' ain't right now. She my girl, but she's not Stephanie."

She stopped and was quiet a minute. "A month later she lost her little shitty job that wasn't payin' the bills anyway. That friend in the building that helped her with the baby, was a ho'. She was independent, no pimp. Taught her the ropes, how to be a ho' and they help each other with the kids. She's been livin' that way for about eight months now. All that and they have to fight a local pimp that keeps showin' up, and beatin' on 'em. Trying to force them to work for him. All them motherfucka's good for is gettin' girls on crack, then they can control they asses."

She looked at me. "She would have killed you to protect that baby. She was alone and it's all she has. It belongs to her now, they belong to each other. They are just tryin' ta live. How could you do what you did to her? She lives humiliation and degradation every day. You didn't have ta punish her. She already paid." Then Lula broke down and sobbed for her friend.

Tank shook his head and gave me a cold stare for a minute. "Come on, baby. Let's go. He's goin' back to Miami and we gonna' help your friend startin' tomorrow. I promise."

He took Lula's hand and led her out of the apartment. I just sat there for hours thinking. There was a time that I did love, Stephanie Plum. A time that I would have died to keep her safe, and there were those times that she'd sacrificed her own life for me and mine. When there were doubts about me, and I was in trouble, she never wavered in her support and trust in me. Even with their history, she'd been compassionate with Morelli, her first skip, and compassionate with many others. I thought about Les, even with his own pain and anger, he would be saddened by this story. Not many people knew it, but he was a compassionate person too. I think he gave more money to charity and support for military families than he spent on himself. I just sat there as sadness and guilt like I had never felt before took me over. I had tortured and killed, and done some horrific things in my life, but what I'd done to a friend, in her great time of need, was maybe the worst. She had found her redemption in a tiny, helpless, human being. Was there any kind of redemption out there for me, or was I even worthy?

I picked up the phone the next morning and called Tank. We spoke for a long while, and he reluctantly agreed to help me. I told him that I wanted him to call Lester and talk to him. I wanted him to know what I was doing. There was something that the three of us knew that Stephanie didn't that might help her with the guilt, and I wanted either Lester to tell her or his permission to share it with her.

If there had been room to pace, I would have been pacing while waiting on the small jet. I was beginning to make the same busty flight hostess from the other day, nervous. Finally, I heard a noise outside and footsteps on the stairs. Tank was the first to poke his head in the door, followed by Lula, and then when Tank moved aside, I saw Stephanie carrying a bundle in her arms.

When she saw me, her eyes got huge and she began shaking her head. Tank caught her before she dashed back through the door. He said, "Bomber, look at me. He made a mistake and he ain't gonna hurt you no more. I promise. We all wanna' help you and Lula is goin' with you. She'll be there until you get settled in. We didn't know your were down, and we don't leave our own. All of us want to help you. Even him."

She had tears in her eyes. "But Tank, this is not just about me and..."

He assured her, "Nobody is gonna hurt you or your baby. We're gonna help you both."

A sob escaped her and she looked at Lula. "You're really going too…?"

Lula nodded. "Yeah, and I brought my gun. He gets outta' hand, we'll give him a getto castration..."

That made Stephanie smile a little and made me a lot uncomfortable being that Tank wasn't going to be with us. Tank must have been thinking the same thing and turned to chuckle at me. Fucker.

Tank kissed both women and headed down the steps. They both sat as far away from me as possible, which wasn't far since it was a small plane. I had a feeling that my life was about to get both complicated and interesting. But wasn't that how I felt, and the reason I was first drawn to Stephanie Plum those few years ago?

TBC -