The final installment of 'Plum-o-ween' and 'Insidiously Menacing' are coming. For now here's part one of two of this spooky, in a different way, October short.

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE. Typos are my bad.

Angie's POV

"So, you can just, like, call her up whenever you, like, want?" Matt asked me, his hazel eyes twinkling in the dim lighting as he glanced around the group as if to gauge the reactions in the room.

"Uhm, yeah." Shrugging, I did my best to play it cool while I snuck quick glances at everyone around me. "She's my aunt, so yeah."

"That's so coooool!" Matt laughed and everyone else followed his lead, no one wanting to lose favor with him. "I've seen her around town and she's so hot." The way he nearly salivated while talking about my Aunt Steph made me feel uneasy. "The Bombshell Bounty Hunter…" Matt practically cooed as he very clearly fantasized about my aunt.

Matthew Jones is the 'coolest' boy in my school. He transferred several weeks ago from out of state. He's wowed a lot of the kids at my school because of all the places he's been to and everything he's gotten to experience despite being our same age. In comparison to us, he's lived a way more exciting life. His family is affluent, so he's visited just about every jaw dropping place you can think of. His well off family is from North Carolina according to him, but he's been living in Florida for a couple years since his parents divorced. After getting in trouble at school, he got shipped to New Jersey to live with his dad's cousin. Matt hasn't elaborated much about what happened in Miami for him to be sent to a whole different state to finish his junior year. Trenton isn't necessarily one of the seven wonders of the world, so...

So why am I here attending a 'cool kids' get together when I'm technically a goody two shoes? Well, because my best friend, Anna, has a huge crush on Matthew and for some reason he for once extended an invite to her for his regular start of the weekend Friday night get-together. She asked me to tag along, and the only way I would be able to be out so late would be if I asked my mom for permission to sleep over at Anna's. My mom just recently let me have a sleepover at Anna's, which was much quieter than the sleepovers at my house with all my younger siblings. Anna's parents are at a work event for her father's company, so there was no one at her house to stop us from attending this quote on quote party. Her parents, like my mom, think Anna's having a sleepover, but at my house. My friend swears that nothing will go wrong and to loosen up a little, yet the pit in my stomach is telling me that this isn't a good idea. I can't put my finger on it, but I can just feel that something's very, very wrong here.

As the night continued to chug along, the sense of uneasiness that began to take hold over me from the start has morphed into a full blown survival alert. It could be that because I refused to drink any of the dubious, and very clearly, alcoholic drinks that were floating around, sticking with sealed water bottles instead, that I didn't find the idiotic conversation topics interesting or even amusing in the slightest bit. Additionally, I found it extremely odd that Matt's home seems to have no adult supervision whatsoever. It's quite odd indeed.

After repeatedly begging Anna for us to leave, she snapped back at me and said I could leave if I wished, that she wanted to and would stay. So, I did. I decided to leave. If she wanted to stay with Matthew and his a-hole posse, fine by me.

My hand was on the doorknob, ready to yank the front door open, when something told me not to leave. It was a very unexplained, and definitely, foreign feeling. Despite my better judgment, I decided to stay. This is perhaps one of the few times, if ever, that I listened to my gut instead of my rational brain. Deep down, I know it's the right thing to do. Even at the risk of crashing and burning right along with my bestie, I chose to hang back and not leave her alone with the boys.

"Yay!" Matthew welcomed me back, crushing me to his side before moving on to continue with his host duties.

"Always be very aware of your surroundings. And if you ever need anything, call me. No matter how late it is. Call me. I will come get you, Angie."

My aunt Stephanie suddenly popped into my mind, her words seemingly being shouted right in my ear. She's made it very clear that I can always count on her, even if I'm afraid of getting in trouble for doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing.

Knowing that she'd come to our rescue, I decided to listen to my gut and call for her backup. Danger warning bells are going off in my head and I can't seem to shake off the feeling that something bad is about to happen.

"No!" Matthew snapped, snatching my cell phone from my hand. When all eyes were on us, he flashed his patented dimpled smile. But in that moment I knew that his mask had fallen off, showing his true colors no matter how much he tried to save face. "No, phones." He tried to deflect, saying that we would be playing a board game and phones would be considered cheating.

"Okay." I nodded, doing my best to seem like I believed him and following along.

I'll have to figure out a different way of getting us out of here. Sadly, I fear it's not going to be easy.

Shit.

I wouldn't be in this situation had I stayed home, curled up with a good book before bed while tuning out my younger siblings as they engage in their typical nightime ruckus.

S&R

Ranger's POV

The instant I reached the penthouse's front door, I could already feel Stephanie. Whenever she's close, not only do I have that tingling on the back of my neck, but sometimes there's even a full body buzz the closer I get to her. The buzzing was one of the things that alerted me to her presence in the apartment, leading me straight to her as she moved around in the kitchen.

Working long days, coming home at late hours of the night, I've hardly seen her this last week. Sure, we've stayed in constant contact and I wake up to her soft body curled around me, yet we've had very little time to ourselves.

"Mmmm. Hi." Babe nearly purred as I slipped my arms around her waist from behind, pressing my front flush to her back.

Hey, I'm an opportunist through and through. I'm going to touch and kiss her every opportunity I get.

"Babe." Her unique scent filled my nostrils even before I pressed my face to the side of her neck. I held her close, breathing her in, for long moments. It felt good to be this close to each other after a hectic week of nonstop emergencies. It's felt like all we've done is put out one fire after the next.

Plus, her little ass brushes against me were quickly sparking an inferno of epic proportions. Now this is the type of sizzling fire I don't mind stoking before it fizzles out.

The moment Stephanie turned in my arms and our mouths sought each other, our hands got busy roaming everywhere seemingly all at once. All that holding back and second guessing is long gone.

On our way back to our bedroom, I made quick work of Babe's tiny pajama shorts and thin tank top set. I prefer when she goes to bed naked, especially if I'm the reason why she's resting, spent and sated beside me, but the sinful little sleep combos she likes to wear in theme with the seasons are a close second.

Babe, in turn, had me not far behind courtesy of her soft hands roaming across my heated flesh, leaving only my cargo pants keeping us from full skin to skin contact.

As we fell in bed with me on top of her wiggling body, I was immediately buried to the hilt as we chased our first joint orgasm of the night. Soft and sweet would have to wait for a later round as sweaty and passionate fueled our movements. Babe, contrary to the Burg's gossip grapevine, is far from a prude. Stephanie loves to give as good as she gets, testing my legendary control every single time.

Completely spent and sweaty, we held each other as we basked in our post orgasmic haze, nearly wheezing as we worked on getting our choppy breathing to return back to normal levels.

Perfect way to start our weekend.

"Holy shit, Ranger." Babe gasped what felt like a lifetime later, too spent to do much aside from further pressing her equally slick left cheek to my chest. "Maybe we should have super busy weeks all of the time." She joked, her still labored breath ghosting against my abs with her exhale.

"Babe." Squeezing her tighter, I shook my head in the negative. I need Stephanie in my life and getting only little snippets of her at a time are a thing of the past. "No." I voiced clearly, growling even, rolling us over so that I'd be on top once again.

"Oh. My. God!" Stephanie's surprised gasp mingled with my groan as I wound us up towards another release.

After that second nearly soul sucking orgasm, we were a tangle of limbs spread across our big bed. Moving was very out of the question.

"Oh my…" Babe was unable to muster enough energy to finish her statement, simply dragging her lips across my pecs as she shifted to be fully on top of me. It was a move I approved of by closing my hands over her ass, grinding her suggestively against me. "Ranger!" Stephanie gasped before moaning as she felt me begin to harden once again.

What can I say? All Babe has to do is breathe and I want her, so having her soft curves pressing against my body will always have me ready to go again. And again. And again…

Babe's fingers were trailing over my side, dipping over every muscle groove she could reach, while I traced random patterns across her lower back. Our lazy moment was interrupted by my phone ringing. Based on the ringtone, I knew it was my daughter. I've only assigned special ringtones to two people and one of them is currently naked, sated and safely in my arms.

"Julie." I greeted my daughter after I reached over the side of the bed for my cargo pants, digging through the pockets until I found my cell.

"Hi, Ranger Dad." Julie greeted back, but her usual vibrant personality that always registers even through a phone conversation was notably absent. "Uhm, is Stephanie with you?" At her question, I flicked my focus back to Babe. "I, uhm, I've been calling her for the past like half hour, but she's not picking up." Because Babe's curled up against me, she heard Julie's words, which had Stephanie blushing very noticeably.

"Hi, Julie." Babe greeted after taking possession of my phone, flicking her eyes to me at whatever Julie said in response. "Yeah, I left my phone in the kitchen and it had the ringer off while I was out on a takedown…" Stephanie trailed off, flashing me what she calls her 'busted' smile.

Whatever Julie said next had Babe bolting up into a sitting position, quickly scrambling off my legs to be able to sit on the edge of the mattress. When I touched Stephanie's bare shoulder, she understood immediately that I wanted to be in the loop, switching the call to speaker mode.

"…I saw a post online and recognized Angie…" Julie said that because of the negative reputation the host of the event amassed in Miami before he was expelled from her childhood friend's school, Julie was concerned to see Stephanie's niece sucked into his orbit. "He's bad news, Steph." Julie filled us in on the allegations the 'boy' has been able to evade punishment for thanks to his Daddy's influence. "Last I'd heard he'd been shipped off out of state, but I didn't know where."

Babe and I shared a look as Julie kept filling us in. Reaching for the landline on my nightstand, I dialed Hector. He answered on the first ring, and I wasted no time in giving him the rundown as I dashed towards the kitchen. Babe's cell was on the counter next to Rex's cage, right where she left it. Using her passcode, her birth month and year, I unlocked her phone to be able to give Hector the teen's phone number so that he could start his search. Just last week Babe's sister, Valerie, finally broke down and got her older two daughters a cell phone.

"Valerie…" Babe must have called her sister right after she hung up with Julie, flashing her worried blue eyes my way when Valerie became utterly hysterical.

So much for a quiet night in with my Babe.

Automatically, I wrapped my free arm around Stephanie's waist. Under any other circumstance, full frontal skin to skin contact would have me swiftly disconnecting my call. Instead, I kissed the top of Babe's head, her tangled curls brushing against the side of my neck as she rested her head on my left shoulder.

"Babe." I promised we'd get to her niece before it was too late, despite knowing that it's a promise I shouldn't be making.

"Okay." Babe nodded, her voice cracking and her eyes shiny with unshed tears once we both disconnected our calls and made a move to get dressed.