Disclaimer: I do not own Stephanie Plum or any other of Janet Evanovich's characters. Nor do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.

Here's the next chapter. There's just one more after this and I'll be posting it shortly. Enjoy!

Please read and review!

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Chapter Three

"Sure," the woman behind the desk said, pointing to the guest chair.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down. "May I ask whom I am speaking with?"

"I'm Connie Risolli," the woman behind the desk said. "That is Lula."

Maxine looked over to her, her head tilted in genuine curiosity. "One name like Cher?"

Lula blinked at her. "Damn skippy."

Maxine thought it over. "Cool." She looked back over to Connie. "So do tell. How long before she took off was she planning on doing this vanishing act?" Both of them blinked at her owlishly, but said nothing. "I would say about three days to a week before she went into the wind. And a girl like her doesn't keep a thing to herself, does she?"

"She tries, but she ends up spilling her guts." It looked like she was remembering something. "She tried fibbing about it, but she is the worst liar I've ever met," Lula said. "Can't tell a lie. Not about the things that matter anyway."

"Does she normally plan anything?" Maxine inquired, looking out the front of the bonds office to watch the traffic for a moment.

This time it was Connie that snorted and said, "Stephanie never plans anything that I know of. Nothing long term at any rate…" She looked to Lula, who nodded in agreement to this. "Why do you ask?"

They were both looking over to her now, waiting for an answer. "Trying to get a handle on her. Find out what makes her tick, as it were."

Connie's eyes went narrow. "Ranger must have called you in." She then pointed at her when who Maxine could be came to her mind. "You're The Tracker?"

Maxine nodded.

"I heard you're the best," Connie muttered.

Clearing her throat, she said, "I used to be." Those words had Lester looking to her sharply. Maxine ignored him as she went on with, "But that's not what we're here about. Tell me what you know about Stephanie Plum."

"We already told everything we know to RangeMan," Lula said tightly. "Ain't our fault they can't find our skinny assed white girl."

Maxine shrugged, but then shook her head. "I am getting the most irritating feeling that there's more to this than I've found out so far. And I think you two know something about it." Again they looked to each other and back over to Maxine. "Like the fact that a big, powder blue 1953 Buick just did a third drive by." Lester swung around in time to see the same said car jet off. "She's been coming by to visit you, hasn't she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Connie said casually, but failed somewhat when sweat began to form on her upper lip making her bleached mustache glisten.

Maxine didn't buy that for a moment. "Different topic—Lula, want to play a game? It's called word association. It's a blast."

"Uh, sure," she said hesitantly. "I like to play games. I win them all the time."

"Great," Maxine murmured. "Glass."

"Water." Lula sat up all the straighter. "See? I rock at this."

"Yes that you do." Maxine thought over her next few words and went on. "Snow."

"White."

"Mix."

"Cookies."

"Pregnant."

"Stephanie." Lula clamped her hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide.

Just then a cellphone started to ring in Connie's desk. She answered it, saying, "Yeah?" She went blank faced. "Uh-huh."

"Tell her we'll be gone shortly," Maxine said, getting up. "You might also inform her not even to bother to go to ground again. I got her scent now. Let's jet, Lester."

It was as the door was closing that Maxine heard Lula say, "Holy shit, she's good."

Marylou kept her door shut and yelled through it that the house had the flu. Maxine gave a disbelieving look to the door.

"Sorry to hear that, ma'am, but seeing as I'm caught up on all my shots I don't think that would be a problem. And the fact that it isn't the flu season might also be a big help."

She popped her head out of the door, hissing, "I'm not going to help Ranger find her."

"Seeing as she's in this house it might be easier than you think," Maxine told her. "And her sneaking out right now won't work either, as her car was towed."

A startled yelp followed by, "They can't tow my car!"

Soon enough Stephanie Plum was at the door, tearing it out of Marylou's hands and glaring at Maxine.

"Ah, if it isn't the elusive Miss Stephanie Plum." She looked over to Marylou. "May I come in?"

Giving up the ghost, Marylou waved her in and closed the door behind her. They went over to the kitchen, where the hostess offered coffee and cake. Maxine turned it down, looking over to a still glowering Stephanie.

"I sent Lester to deal with the car." She looked at her watch. "We have about ten minutes to talk. So we have to keep this quick. How far along are you?"

Sitting all the straighter, Stephanie said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I found the receipt with the pregnancy test on it," Maxine said casually. "And Lula confirmed this." Stephanie's face went beet red. "How far along are you?"

"About five weeks," she muttered. "Not that Ranger cares."

"He cares," Maxine said. "Trouble with guys like him is that he is proficient at lying—even to himself." She rubbed at her upper thigh in thought. "You need to show him that what he thinks he wants and what he really wants are two different things."

Sitting up all the straighter, she asked, "How do I do that?"

Maxine shook her head no. "I haven't a clue." When both of them looked at her disbelievingly, she said, "I don't know. What I do know is that it's past time you need to come out of hiding and deal with it. You have a bun in the oven that needs its daddy and as much as you want to deny it, you do too." There was a sound at the door, she looked at the watch. "Damn, he must have called the office." She looked over to Stephanie. "It's now or never."

Ranger was filling the doorway soon enough, his eyes drilling into Stephanie's. Maxine got to her feet, walking over to Marylou who got up as well. They went over to the living room where Marylou offered her a seat on the sofa. Maxine gave a weary sigh at the sight of the low seating. There would be no way she'd be able to sit down with any amount of grace and getting up would be impossible.

"Is there a problem?" Marylou asked.

Worrying her lower lip, she shook her head no. Just then Lester came into the house. "Ranger's here?" She nodded towards the kitchen.

"Yo quiero ir," Maxine said to him to which he nodded.

"Let me tell Ranger and we'll go." He went over to the kitchen, gave a brief report and was back over to Maxine. "Let's go."

"It was lovely to make your acquaintance, Marylou," Maxine said, as they went to the front door. "I only wish it were under better circumstances."

She looked towards the kitchen and back over to the other woman. "Do you think they'll work it out?"

Maxine looked over towards the kitchen with a thoughtful expression. "They'll have to, if only for that baby she's carrying."

Once outside, they made their way over to the SUV only to have Lester stop her before she could open the door.

"Are you going back to the west coast?" It was clear that he was nervous asking as much.

Maxine stepped up to him, cupping his face and looking deeply into his eyes. "You do realize that if I had the ability to do so, I'd be kneeing you right now in the goods?"

"Oh yeah," he whispered.

"Then it's a good thing I can't, huh?" That had him grinning down at her. "What do you guys do for something to eat around here? We can get some grub and we can have a long talk about what I'm going to be doing. I mean other than you after we eat."

"Sounds like a plan," he said, leaning down and kissing her lips lightly. "I've missed you so much, mi reina."

"Te amo, Lester," she breathed. "Te quiero mucho."

His arms went around her, hugging her tightly. "Marry me."

"I never signed the papers," she whispered. "Not a single time you sent them to me." When he pulled back and looked at her startled, she snapped, "We got married in a church in front of God. It's not something you can break up with the say so of man."

"Ah, my good Mexican Catholic wife," he sighed, smiling as he said as much.

Ranger and Stephanie watched them from the kitchen window, his hands massaging her shoulders as they watched the couple as Lester lifted her up into the truck and left for Haywood.

"So they're married?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes, they have been for years," Ranger said. "I didn't know he was missing her as much as he was until we got drunk two weeks ago. After that night, I did some investigating and found out what happened to her and how she kept trying to get a hold of him but couldn't thanks to this woman he had been dating at the time…"

"But if they're married…"

"He went through a wild time there and she didn't want to deal with him as he was. Not that I blame her, he was crazy the way he was drinking and whoring. He kept sending her divorce papers and she kept sending them back torn up with a letter telling him that she's a good Mexican Catholic and he would have another thing coming if he sent the papers to her again."

"When did he stop?"

"She sent her cousin Hector to talk to him," he said laughing.

"Hector? Our Hector?"

"The very same," he answered, kissing her temple. "Let's go home, Babe. It's been too long."

Grinning she said, "I just saw you this morning."

Leaning down he nibbled at her throat. "Yeah, like I said, it's been too long."

TBC…

XXX

Translations-

Yo quiero ir: I want to go

Te amo, Lester: I love you, Lester

Te quiero mucho: I love you so much

Translations done on my Android phone, checked by my beta, but any mistakes are mine.

There you go! Just the epilogue to go and our journey is completed. And I'll be posting that shortly. Thank you.