Trenton, New Jersey, was the bane of my existence. The DEA commissioned my group of six to uncover how the drugs are moving into New Jersey. I never thought I'd be stuck in my hometown for an undisclosed amount of time. Two men are in Miami, hoping to stop the drugs from moving up the East Coast. The other group of two is near North Carolina. We have our assignments and need to report to the DEA and our military handlers with the details.
It wasn't my first undercover mission, but I must admit it was the first one using my birth name. In military circles, I was known as Stephanie Mañoso. My husband and his brother are ex-special ops but often work as mercenaries, men in the military, ATF, DEA, and other alphabet agencies hired to complete a job. I supposed someone could classify my partner and me as mercenaries since we have a military contract to work the occasional mission where our skills are needed. Al and I were part of a six-man team. Thankfully, my husband wasn't part of our group because he belonged to the elite ex-Rangers mercenary group. I loved working with him, but doing my own thing and utilizing my skills stopped me from going crazy. Plus, the sex whenever one of us returned from a mission was off the walls amazing.
"Plum, what's your status?" Al asked, interrupting my thoughts of having sex with my husband.
"Following a lead," I replied.
"Your brother-in-law is in town," he announced.
"Does he know I'm here?" I questioned.
"Affirmative," Al answered. I groaned and thought my brother-in-law needed to mind his own business. It wasn't the first time he followed me during one of my undercover operatives.
"I hope he doesn't blow my cover," I mumbled. "Did he bring my husband?"
"Negative. I only see Tank, Brown and Santos with him," Al replied. I sighed in relief. If my husband wasn't in town, that meant my children were safe. I couldn't bear to have them in danger because of my brother-in-law's stupidity in following me to Trenton, New Jersey.
"Thank goodness," I said.
"He won't blow your cover. It might be a coincidence that he's here. I heard the guys wanted to open a Rangeman branch in Trenton to be closer to the family," Al added. I rolled my eyes. Rangeman was a security company and a place for ex-military, ex-cop, and ex-cons to work if they possessed the skills required to do the job. Its creation occurred when a few of our friends couldn't obtain steady employment after receiving their military discharge paperwork.
"Pfft," I replied. "More likely that they saw an opportunity to make a shit ton of money in Trenton. The crime level has increased in recent years. More people are skipping bail. Rangeman will do well in the area. I wouldn't be surprised if my husband suddenly materialized in town. He'd leave the kids with Ella if I were in any danger."
"Doesn't your family live here?" Al asked. Why did he have to remember that nugget about my life?
"Only Helen and Edna because Harry died two years ago," I replied, assuming he meant those women. "Unless you meant cousins and such. I have lots of those in Trenton."
"Right. Your father raised you and Valerie in North Carolina at Fort Bragg. I forgot," Al said. I rolled my eyes. It wasn't something I could ever forget. My life got turned upside down because Joseph Morelli decided to steal Valerie's virginity in his father's garage. She came home battered, bruised and bloody, crying about how hurting everywhere. Helen flipped out and said Joseph was supposed to take me, not her precious Valerie. I wasn't surprised when Valerie's boyfriend, Steve, dumped her. She refused to have sex with him, but she did it with Joe. Steve never understood that Valerie didn't give her virginity to the youngest Morelli boy. He stole it and, while she protested, used his fists to force her. Helen's reaction was the final straw with Dad. Valerie, embarrassed that she had fallen victim to Joe, moved with us to escape ridicule in Chambersburg, also known as the Burg to the locals.
I was too smart to fall for Joseph Morelli's games and lies, making an effort to avoid him. He tried to take advantage of me when I was six. Dad was not happy about me following Joe into the garage. Thankfully, Dad stopped Joe from touching me. I kept my innocence until losing it to my husband when I was seventeen. He was eighteen. We got married after I enlisted in the Army. He went to college for a year and a half until he decided it wasn't for him. Our son was born nearly two years after we got married, and our daughter was born a year after our son's birth. Their birthdays are one year and three days apart. I couldn't have maintained my military career without Dad and my stepmom's help. Rosalyn watched my babies so I could do my job. I spent my time between deployments with my husband and children.
"It wasn't so much as raised Val and me," I reminded him. "I was fourteen and refused to live with Helen under her rules. If she had her way, I'd be married with children."
"Um. You are married with children," Al jokingly replied.
"That isn't the point, Al. I meant married to one of those loser Burg men and raising their evil spawn," I corrected.
"Who would have been the worst?" he asked.
"Joe Morelli," I replied, shivering from head to toe. "That would have been worse than when we got stuck in Colombia." I reflexively touched my leg where the drug lord stabbed me, hoping to incapacitate me enough to rape and enslave me. He wanted an American woman to do his bidding. It didn't work. I used my training to disarm him and used that same knife to slit his throat. The blood spray was unbelievable, but I escaped with my life and managed to rescue my husband and his team. I hated killing people, and having to be up close and feel the dying man's last breath on my face was devastating. Playing with knives was messy.
"Are you saying that marrying Detective Joe Morelli would be worse than being a drug lord's property?" Al asked, sounding aghast.
"Absolutely. I maintained contact with my best friend, Mary Lou. She kept me updated on everything in the Burg. Morelli is incapable of being monogamous, and some women complained about him coercing them into having sex. They were too afraid of saying no," I replied. "Al, you've known me since basic training. Do you honestly think I could be a stay-at-home wife and mother?"
Al laughed for several minutes before answering, "No. Valerie is content being home with our children. Did you know we're expecting again?"
"Seriously? Haven't you figured out how to use condoms?" I teased. Valerie loved being pregnant, and Al enjoyed watching her abdomen expand with their baby. It was a weird kink, but I heard it turned on Al; at least, that's what Valerie said. I think it's because she isn't going crazy on birth control, and Al enjoyed having sex without using condoms. My husband and I got "fixed" after Jillian's birth. We decided two children were more than enough for our lifestyle. Not worrying about birth control was liberating.
"We're hoping for a boy this time," Al confessed. Al and Valerie had four daughters. I couldn't imagine dealing with the raging hormones of five women. Their oldest daughter, Angie, was already developing. Her hormones were all over the place.
"If you get your son, would you stop procreating?" I asked.
"Definitely," he answered. "Thank goodness this mission will pay well. We could use the money to buy a larger house. I have a question about Valerie. Do you promise to answer honestly?"
"Al, you know better than to ask if I'll be honest in my reply. Have I ever been dishonest with you?" I challenged.
"Never. I didn't expect you to start now. I wonder if Valerie and Steve were married, would they still be together?" Al asked.
I snorted and laughed. "Nope. Steve married our cousin, Marion, who moved to LA and had two daughters. He left Marion for the babysitter. Marion did everything possible to keep Steve. In the end, it didn't matter. Some men can't get past watching their wives give birth. It permanently turns them off. I heard Marion is returning to Trenton to live with her parents until she gets back on her feet. Steve left her penniless."
"Wow. Valerie never said anything," Al replied.
"Why should she? Valerie knows she dodged that bullet. My sister is very happy with you," I said.
"She was mad about the weight gain."
"Hers or yours?"
"Mine," Al said as he sighed. "I had to gain nearly thirty pounds for this job. It's going to be hard to lose it."
"Get Ranger or Brown to put you on an exercise and diet regime. They'll have that weight off you within seven months," I suggested.
"How do you know?" Al asked.
"They got me to channel my extra hormones into physical training instead of using sugar to suppress them," I replied. My husband knows this about me. I would be lying if I said he never benefitted from my lack of sugar hormones. How else could Alex and Jillian have happened? "This job is going to kill my reputation."
"Not as much as it will kill mine. Why would it affect yours?"
"I have to become an inept BEA bond enforcement agent with my slimy cousin, Vinnie, and I'm forbidden to use my training unless my life is in danger," I complained. "Oh. I have to go. I'm at the bonds office now. Wish me luck."
"Good luck, but I doubt you'll need it. You could have a worse cover. Look at mine! I had to gain weight," Al said.
"True, at least I didn't have to gain as much weight as you. They still asked me to put on ten pounds. My husband was not impressed when I had to eat junk food again," I replied, laughing about our mission parameters.
"What happens if he says no?" Al asks, getting me back on task.
"I'll use his sexual deviance against him and threaten to tell his wife," I replied. Al laughed as he called me evil and signed off.
I left my earbud in place to hear advice from Al. The device was small enough to hide in my ear and matched my skin tone. It was a Rangeman prototype and one of the benefits of having my husband co-own the business. He let me test every new device, and having it connect through our mobile devices was an added bonus. We didn't have to worry about getting out of range.
A woman I recognized as Connie Rosolli was sitting behind the receptionist's desk, concentrating on organizing a stack of files. She was in Valerie's class in school. Her sister, Tina, was in my grade until I left Trenton. I took a deep breath and opened the door. "Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum. Is Vinnie here?" I asked. My handler, I meant Dad, told me to ask about the filing position recently vacated, knowing it wasn't available. It would help me segue into the BEA job I sought.
"Why do you need Vinnie?" Connie asked, blowing on her freshly painted red nails.
"I'm here for the filing job," I replied.
"Sorry, honey, but Vinnie filled it earlier," Connie said. Her Jersey accent was thicker than mine. I never realized I lost it.
"Oh," I replied, pretending to be upset. "Thanks."
"Wait. One of our BEAs, that's a bond enforcement agent or bounty hunter, is in the hospital with a burst appendix. We could use another one," Connie said, piquing my interest.
"What do I have to do?" I asked despite already knowing the answer.
Connie explained the duties. It was the same job a Ranger did in other cities and during missions. He chased and apprehended criminals for the police, military, and FBI, not unlike my other job with Rangeman. "Do you remember Joe Morelli?" Connie asked.
"Yup." Joe wasn't a difficult person to forget. I remember when he strutted around town, calling himself the Italian Stallion after relieving the innocent girls of their virginity. He was arrogant, and at one time, I thought he was handsome. When I met my husband during a spring break vacation to Miami, I realized sexier men existed. Joe was average at best.
"Morelli got himself arrested for murder. He claimed shooting Ziggy Kulesza in self-defence, but nobody could find the weapon," Connie explained, tapping a folder containing the information.
Do I want to capture Morelli? Absolutely. I wanted him to pay for what he did to my sister. She didn't deserve to be used and abused. Valerie lucked out with Al. He was patient and allowed her to take the lead in their relationship. I have never seen Valerie so happy. Helen didn't like Al because he wasn't from the Burg. We used to joke about how much Helen would hate my husband, who was a second-generation Cuban-American.
"May I read it?" I asked, pointing at the folder beneath her perfectly polished red nails. Connie was pure Italian. Her head was large, caused by her hair, and her eyes wide. The hairstyle she wore made her resemble Betty Boop. I noticed her chest had expanded since high school, likely when she put on a few extra pounds. Like her sister Tina, Connie had large breasts after hitting puberty. My breasts were a modest 36B, which my husband loved. They increased to a C cup while I was pregnant, but exercise and diet made them shrink to the pre-pregnancy size.
I picked up the file and opened it. Connie had clipped Joseph Morelli's mug shot to the bond agreement and other papers from a background check. I first studied the photographs from his booking. He looked more mature than I remembered, leaner, and had more facial bone definition. Another picture was more casual. Joe wore a brown leather jacket and jeans. The last photo was probably from a police publication because he was formally posed wearing a shirt and tie. He had lines at the eyes and a paper-thin scar above his right eyebrow, making it droop enough to appear menacing.
"Are you interested?" Connie asked.
"Sure. I can do this," I replied.
"Vinnie! Get your ass out here," Connie shouted.
The door to my right opened, and my least favourite cousin stepped out. He was a worm, a sexual deviant and a piece of shit. "When did you get back into town?" Vinnie asked, sneering at me. I wanted to punch that smug look off his face.
"I moved back yesterday," I replied.
"What do you want?" Vinnie demanded. I placed my right hand on my hip and offered him the folder in my left hand. Vinnie laughed. "You don't have what it takes to be a bounty hunter."
"Give me this file and two weeks to find and capture Morelli," I said.
"Your father will kill me," Vinnie replied.
"Dad sent me here," I argued.
Vinnie stared into my face, hoping to detect a lie. It was the honest truth. Dad did send me here for the BEA job, thinking I might dig up something behind the drug smuggling and trafficking issues. Detecting that I spoke the truth, Vinnie said, "Fine. You have two weeks, but I need you to bring in a few more skips."
"Deal." I refused to shake his hand because I didn't know where he had it last.