Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum, and I work for my cousin Vinnie. He's a bail bonds agent, and I do fugitive apprehension for him. What that means generally is that Vinnie bonds out the bad guys who are put in jail, and when they don't show up for their court appearance it's my job to bring them back dead or alive. Mostly we aim for alive. I don't usually kill people. Today might not be usual though.

Currently I'm pinned down in an abandoned warehouse where I followed my skip. That's what we call someone who's failed to appear for their court case. Michael Alvarez was, we thought, a small time drug dealer. I was beginning to have second thoughts about the small time part.

Anyhow, I'm stooped down behind this old desk wishing like hell Ranger weren't out of town and wondering for the millionth time why I hadn't taken that job at the button factory. Sometimes I also work for Ranger at his company Rangeman, and right now the thought of sitting at my cubicle doing computer searches sounds like heaven.

Ranger also works as a bounty hunter for Vinnie. The difference is Ranger is actually good at hunting people. I, on the other hand, am not. I'm mostly lucky. And usually I'm lucky because Ranger shows up to save my ass.

Ranger is a Cuban-American hottie. He's ex-special forces with impressive yet frightening skills that I couldn't even begin to hope for. He also has other business interests. He does security, surveillance, witness protection. Those are the things I know about. Then there are those things Ranger's involved with that he doesn't share with me. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of things Ranger doesn't share with me. Or anyone as far as I can tell. He's got a hot body, gorgeous hair, and sex appeal in spades. Besides the fact that Ranger likes to push me against the closest wall and destroy me with mind-numbing kisses at every opportunity, he'd also spent one incredible night proving to me that his sex appeal was just a prelude to his love-making skills. Ranger makes a woman lick her lips. Ranger's perfect. The only thing wrong with Ranger at this moment is that he's in Miami on business and I'm in Trenton dodging bullets.

It had been quiet for the last 30 seconds, so just out of curiosity I stuck my head around the side of the desk. And flew back so fast I fell on my ass when a bullet went whizzing past my ear.

I decided I'd stay right where I was until Tank and Hal showed up. Tank is Ranger's right hand man. He's in charge when Ranger's out of town or off-line somewhere saving a third world country. He and the rest of Ranger's staff, which I affectionately call the Merry Men, are responsible for saving my ass when Ranger isn't available. If Ranger were to pay hazard pay to his employees, it would be for Stephanie duty. I'm a real pain in Ranger's ass. I try not to put his men in harm's way, at least not on purpose. But, hey, my life's in jeopardy, so, what's a girl to do? I might be insane, but I don't want to die. Fortunately I called Tank as soon as the first shots were fired. Unfortunately, that had been what seemed like a life time ago and still no Calvary.

Just as I was getting angry at Tank for taking so long, I heard him call out to me.

"Hey, Steph, you okay?"

"Yeah. What took you so long?"

"Christ, it's like a fucking war zone here. This guy must have half the neighborhood covering the front door for him. What the hell did you get yourself into?"

"Can we get into that later? My legs are cramping back here."

"Where are you?" Right then someone opened fired, and I could hear return fire from Tank who was taking cover over by the door.

"She's behind the desk, motherfucker. Why don't you try to get to her?" My skip was either trying to be helpful or he was hoping to get a chance to shoot someone. I was guessing he wasn't in a helpful frame of mind.

"Sit tight, Steph. Don't come out until I tell you."

"Okeydokey." Normally this would have brought on a chuckle from Tank, but I was thinking he and the guys were probably sweating. Big time. None of them wanted to face Ranger if something happened to me. Ranger wasn't as forgiving as I was.

Suddenly I heard shots fired all around me. I leaned around the desk and unloaded my gun towards the area where I'd seen Alverez hiding behind a door. And then all was quiet. I poked my head around the corner again. All I could think about was getting this over with so I could stand up. I'd been crouched down back here for almost an hour, and I was cold and uncomfortable.

I was yanked back from behind, and I had to stifle a shriek. "Damn it, Steph, I told you to sit tight." I'm also a real pain in Tank's ass.

"You scared the crap out of me. Don't do that." Tank's only response was a grunt. He turned away looking toward the door and pulled out his 2-way.

"Hal, what do you think? Did we get him?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. He was up in the corner room. I saw him go down when you and Steph unloaded on him, and I haven't seen any movement up there since."

I peaked over the top of the desk and saw Hal and Bobby heading up the stairs. Since they were out in the open and weren't getting shot at I took it as a good sign and stood to stretch my legs. I felt Tank grab my hand and yank just as shots rang out. Then all I felt was a dark wave roll over me.

"Tank, tell Ranger I love him." And everything went black.