Prologue

My name is Stephanie Plum and I'm currently a single woman living on my own. That may seem as though my life is boring but that's far from the truth. At 32 I've been married and divorced in a short amount of time and then my world turned upside down when I lost my job selling lingerie. I had a hard time after that happened because I just couldn't get a job anywhere. An opportunity arose working for my cousin Vinnie at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and that's when my life was totally turned upside down. My job was to take people, who had failed to appear for their court date, back into the system. Being desperate for money by then I jumped at the chance of doing just that with a man whom I had a history with. A lifetime of history. I thought the job would be easy and finding him was. The problem I had and probably still have at times is actually making them go back into the police station. That was when Connie, who managed the Bond office suggested I have help from an experienced bounty hunter. That's how I met Ranger. Eventually I captured my skip, Joseph Morelli, and all of that history came back at me. He was a really good-looking guy, with a face and body that could charm any woman and I wasn't immune to his charms. So started a relationship that probably had as many ups as it did downs. Mixed into this my new mentor Ranger became a friend, then a good friend until I finally admitted to myself, I had feelings that went way above friendship. So, there I was, having feelings for two men at the same time. One was obtainable, he said he wanted to marry me, while the other was unobtainable and wasn't interested in anything serious. So, you can see just how much my life was lived from day to day. I could write a book about all the incidents that happened to me but for now I'm trying very hard to decide exactly what it is that I want from my life. As my mother keeps telling me.

"You're not getting any younger"
What she meant was you'll be too old for anyone to want you, too old for children and too old to be doing the job you're doing.

Chapter 1

SPOV

"I am so fucking annoyed with you Stephanie"

I almost jumped at the sound of Joe's voice as he stood there staring at me from the hallway. I think I knew why he was annoyed but wasn't so sure that it warranted such an outburst. That he'd barged his way into my apartment already had my blood boiling let alone what he was saying, or should I say shouting at me.

"I won't keep doing this, I can't cope with it"

"Doing what exactly Joe?"

The look he was giving me radiated anger, and the way he was talking to me just made me bristle with temper as well. As he stood clenching his fists, I returned the gesture by putting my hands on my hips.

"I'm constantly on edge thinking the next call I get is someone telling me you didn't make it home"

"Joe, it really had nothing to do with me"

"It was your car that blew up"

"And as I told everyone I was nowhere near it"

"Didn't you think I'd be worried when they said there was a body inside, burnt so badly they couldn't identify it?"

"I didn't know some jerk had stolen my car and trashed it"

"I've told you so many times that you'd get somebody killed. Hell, you're always getting Ranger's men injured"

"How the hell does that have anything to do with my car?"

"It was a wreck that shouldn't have been allowed on the road"

"Hey, it worked fine"
"It was a fucking disaster waiting to happen. The breaks didn't work properly, the tank was all rusted up. And let's not even mention the steering"
"That car drove just fine, you just had to know how to drive it"

"Christ Cupcake it shouldn't have been on the road, it was a death trap"

"It was not"

"That poor kid didn't stand a chance"

"He shouldn't have stolen it"

"That's not the point, someone is dead because"
"No you do not get to blame me"

The idea that he thought that someone had died because of me had me catching my breath. Is that what he thought, what other people would think?

"You always have an excuse don't you, well as I said I can't keep doing this"

To be honest I think I was relieved because usually when he did eventually track me down after I'd had a bad incident all he did was shout at me and belittle me, I was at the point where I felt he was right, I couldn't keep doing it either.

"I've been offered a job in the homicide department up in New York City and I'm going to take it"

I had no response to that, no sudden feeling of panic that he was leaving and that surprised me. Maybe it was better this way, I mean we'd argued more and more over the last month and it hadn't just been about my job.

"You have a choice, come with me and we can settle down or stay here on your own"

As ultimatums go it was certainly to the point, but as I thought about it, I couldn't see the relationship we had going anywhere regardless of where we were. Joe would want me to stay at home, raise kids and do all those housewife chores that he yearned for me to do and I knew I couldn't be that person. I couldn't keep going with the constant anger he threw at me, hell if that was how he felt then really there was nothing more to be said. I didn't answer him, which I think was annoying him even more. Did he really think I would pack up my life here in Trenton and move to somewhere like New York where I wouldn't have a job, family or friends? He must have sensed my hesitancy at answering because he turned and headed to the door.

"If you change your mind come find me, I'll always love you Cupcake, don't ever forget that"

I watched as he disappeared through the door, slamming it loudly behind him and then sat on the couch with my mug of coffee to really think through what had just happened. I could maybe see why he'd been so worried and got annoyed, but I hadn't even known about my car until I'd walked into the station this afternoon. The least he could have done was check in with me first before jumping to conclusions.

As I sat, I thought back over what had happened that afternoon. I'd been with Lula chasing a skip and as usual she'd insisted that we took her Firebird. We'd just managed to get him into the car when I received a text. At the time I'd thought it strange when I saw it was a text from Ranger that just asked, "You okay?" I responded with "Yes, bringing in a skip" and left it at that. When I'd walked into the station 30 minutes later the whole place had gone silent and as everyone looked my way, I'd turned to look behind me, then realized they were staring at me.

"Err, what's wrong?"

It was Eddie who'd shaken his head and then came up to me and hugged me.

"Eddie, what's happened?"

"Hell Steph, we all thought it was you in your car"

"My car?"

"It hit a gas station and with the explosion burst into flames and then the tanks went up, so your car was totaled. The thing is Steph there were remains of a body inside"

"So you thought it was me?"

As he nodded, he hugged me tighter and I could understand now why everyone was so shocked to see me walk in.

"Well I'm here and I'm okay. Shit Eddie does that mean the jerk who stole my car is dead?"

"Yeah, where was your car when you left it?"

"Parked behind the bonds office"

"I'm just glad you're okay Steph"

"Yeah me as well"

"This your skip?"

I turned to see old Mr Hindley just stood behind me, hell he looked so shocked with everyone focusing on me. I walked him over to the desk and cuffed him to the bench then as I stood waiting for my receipt tried to remember what I'd left in the car. Nothing came to mind so with the receipt in my hand I wandered back to Eddie.

"Eddie can you get me a copy of the incident report for my insurance please?"

"No problem Steph, it may be a few days because we'll have to try and identify the body"

"No problem"

I was thankful that Lula had managed to wait for me, too often she would disappear from the station leaving me without a way to get home or back to my car.

"See, I waited on you"

"Thanks Lula. Someone stole my car so could you drop me off at my apartment?"

'Shit, who in their right mind would steal that heap of junk?"

I just shrugged my shoulders, because it was my heap of junk and it ran okay, if you ignored the rust and the plumes of smoke it worked just fine for me. Lula dropped me off at the front of the building so saying a thanks to her I walked through the entrance and called for the elevator.

"Going up, ladies dresses and accessories"

"Thanks Mrs. Bestler"

Once inside my apartment I headed for the kitchen and opened the fridge to find some grapes and a carrot for Rex. He didn't immediately come out of his soup can, so I waited until he slowly managed to haul his body out and put his nose to the offerings. Strange because he smelled at them and retreated back to his can. As I placed my bag on the counter, I saw some keys sitting next to a white card, I smiled as I read the word written on the card "Babe" then picking up the keys walked over to the window to look down into the parking area. There by the dumpster was a shiny black SUV. I messaged "Thank you" to Ranger and decided I'd had too much excitement for the day. After I'd showered and changed into sleep wear, then I made myself comfortable on the couch. With a soda and peanut and olive sandwich I settled in front of the television. It had been later that evening that Joe had come by, so here I was sat on the couch trying to decide if I would miss him, no way was I going to New York. I mean I knew he was good to look at, he had brown hazel eyes that could change to a deep color when he was aroused, a body that he looked after, yeah all in all he was a good looking guy and could be seen as a devoted lover but was that enough for me? Did I love him enough to give up my life, could I live with his constant shouting and criticism? Not really and gauging by the number of times we broke up and then got back together maybe I didn't love him enough to feel a commitment to even try.