Got this idea and decided to put it on paper and see where it goes. This story is AU. Trying to keep everyone in character, with some twists thrown in there.

Stephanie is a PI living in Trenton. When her family asks her to look into the vanishing of her cousin Vinnie's wife, Stephanie is dragged into a whole different ball game. And to top it all off, Stephanie finds herself lusting after a certain handsome stranger, Ranger.

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE.

The phone rang just as I was leaving my apartment. It was my mother.

"Hey, ma, I'm on my way out..." I said by way of greeting. My mother interrupted me, saying my cousin's wife was missing. "Which cousin?"

"Vinnie."

I groaned. Vinnie isn't exactly on my list of favorites.

I was told Lucille, Vinnie's wife, was let out on bail after she assaulted a security guard at the mall. And now she failed to show up for her court appearance.

"What do you want me to do? I'm a private investigator not a bounty hunter." I looked at the time, knowing I had to get a move on it or I'd be late for my appointment. And I can't have that, it's bad for business.

"He's family and it's the holidays." My mother let that hang in the open for a few beats.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do." I hung up and flew out of my apartment.

My name is Stephanie Plum. I'm in my early thirties, have blue eyes and curly brown hair that falls to my shoulders. I'm doing okay financially and my biggest worry today is deciding on whether or not I'll watch a movie before bed. Considering things are pretty good for me right now, maybe that's why I accepted to take a look at Lucille's case.

S&R

My lunch meeting with my client went better than expected. I pocketed my pay and headed back to my car. It was the typical affair fiasco, an easy one to close.

Since I was done for the day I decided to call my parents' number to get more details of this whole skipping court situation.

My parents live in a chunk of Trenton called the Burg. Houses are small and homey. Cars are American. I lived here until I stretched the umbilical cord and went off to college. After a failed relationship I came back to Trenton a few months ago, but decided I needed my space so I found a place of my own.

On the first ring someone answered. It was my grandmother. Grandma Mazur moved in with my parents after Grandpa Mazur had one too many sweets and went to the big candy shop in the sky.

"Stephanie!" Grandma Mazur lost no time, giving me the details of the situation. She gave me directions to my cousin's bonds office. Not that I needed them. Vincent Bail Bonds is located on Hamilton and I drive by there pretty often. "If you need a sidekick, I'm available." Grandma reminded me before we ended our call.

I had to smile at Grandma Mazur's enthusiasm.

S&R

After a brief visit to the bonds office and meeting with Connie Rosolli, the office manager, I was on my way to Vinnie's house. I went to school with Connie's sister, Tina. Maybe that helped in her opening up to me, telling me what was going on. I was told that as soon as Vinnie realized his wife was Failure to Appear, he went in search of her. It's been a couple days since and Connie thinks there might be more to all of this than simply skipping court.

I parked in front of Vinnie's house, a nice looking two story place right at the edge of the Burg. I stared at the house for a few minutes, letting the facts I knew sink in.

It just didn't add up that two people would simply vanish. Just poof, gone without leaving a trace.

I angled out of my CRV and circled the house, taking in every detail. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the outside, so I used the keys Connie gave me and let myself in.

The place was messy. It was beyond the leaving in a hurry type mess. It looked like someone had been through here already. And it seemed they were searching for something.

I had yet to make it past the kitchen when I suddenly felt a presence in the house. I wasn't alone.

"Who are you?" A masculine tone was accompanied by the slight rustle of clothing.

"I come in peace." Just in case he had a gun trained on me, I moved my hands very slowly to my sides and dangled the keys. "See, I have keys. This is my cousin's house. I heard about his wife and wanted to stop by and see how he was holding up." Silence. I took that as a good sign and turned around.

I came face to face with a tall, drop-dead handsome Latino of a mocha-latte skin color and a body that was as good as it could get.

"Vinnie…" I cleared my throat, forgetting my train of thought for a moment. "I'm Stephanie Plum. Vincent Plum is my cousin."

The handsome man stared at me, hands tucked away inside the pockets of his fleece jacket, and kept quiet.

"I've told you what I'm doing here. What about you?" I was hoping if I got him talking, he'd look a little less ready to throw me out.

After a long stretch of silence the man finally spoke. "You tripped the alarm when you came in."

Oh. How could I have missed that?

"You're not the only one to overlook it." It was as if he could read my mind.

I decided to get down to business and see if he could give me something useful. "Someone's broken in."

An almost imperceptible nod was the response.

"Oookay." I darted my gaze around, filing in the back of my mind as much as I could of this place in case it proved to be handy later on. I've learned that people tend not to remember what they think isn't important. "So, Mister…" He'd yet to tell me his name.

"Ranger."

"Right." I wasn't sure if that was really his name or if he was just yanking my chain. "Mr. Ranger…"

"Just Ranger." He said, dark eyes doing a full body scan. The heat of his stare made me shift my weight to my other foot.

"Anyway, I can see the house is empty so I'll be heading out now." I gave him a two finger wave, letting him see the keys in my hand to reemphasize that I wasn't breaking in.

Before I even finished with my wave the sound of screeching tires reached us. Seconds later the roar of gunfire filled the air and before I knew it the dark skinned man was moving towards me.

We hit the floor together, his muscular body pinning me under him. The loud sounds continued and I barely registered that I was pressing impossibly closer to a man I'd just met.

Silence fell what felt like an eternity later. I was breathing hard, my heart beating wildly in my chest.

There was a loud explosion in the vicinity of the house. I shrieked and buried my face in the crook of the stranger's neck. I breathed him in, forgetting about everything for a moment. He smelled great and it finally registered that our bodies were tangled in a very intimate way.

"We need to get out of here." Ranger said, the words whispered near my ear.

"Yeah." I nodded, finally pulling my face away from his neck.

"You need to let go." He said while strong hands unclenched mine from the vicious grip I had on his jacket.

"Right." I let him lead the way to the back door.

We hurried through the small backyard and moved down the service alley running behind the houses. I had to jog a little to keep up with his long strides.

As soon as we rerouted back to the main street a huge fireball in front of Vinnie's house became visible.

"That's my car, isn't it?" I muttered out loud, feeling very certain I no longer had a car.

"Was." I heard Ranger say.

I gave the man a brief glare before returning my attention to the flames eating away at what used to be my car.

I sighed. I hadn't even been on the case for half a day and already I was car-less.

And to top it all off I groped a total stranger in a moment of panic.

Thoughts?...

Upcoming chapters will go into more detail as to how Steph ended up as a PI.