The Fugitive (Stephanie Plum series fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Breaking and Entering!

No one ever knew where Ranger had kept his Batcave's location except for one girl, who happened to refuse stepping on the same proximity within 360 miles radius range of that said "controversial" private property.

And that "lucky" girl was me.

Actually, I would have not known about it either if he hadn't almost killed himself in saving my own life in chasing our marked. And it was because we both needed some place to crash on until the angry Drug Mugol's wrath cooled down in some way, Ranger gave me his address oh-so-reluctantly.

My name is Athena, unlike the goddess of wisdom which unfortunately my namesake, I didn't really own the ability to think things through. I always acted and then regretted it later if my plans ended up as a bust. My impulsive behavior always got me into trouble rather more often than not. This said attitude brought me to my unpleasant current situation.

For exactly 46 hours now, I was declared an FTA or Failure to Appear for carrying concealed, though I really had a permit to carry but too pissed off to show to the arresting officer.

Pfft!

Like it was a crime to carry some hardware for some precaution. I was one of them cautious lady and it really comes with the territory, you know.

Actually, I didn't really intend missing my court date, though. I was with the government once and I knew the protocols. How the prosecutors' frowns on the likes of my case and sure as hell didn't want to get ignored by some low life scumbags like I was now apparently. But then again, I had more pressing issues than dressing up and showed up my face in court like a goody two shoes girl would.

That was to fucking stay alive!

And staying alive these days was kind of tough. People were after me. And they were no ordinary people either. They were serial killers from different underground organizations. Now, I realized that killing one of the Triad's head was not a funny business.

I was on the run when a night cop spotted me sporting my hardware in a stop shop outside Jersey proper while eating my coffee jelly doughnuts.

Jesus! I couldn't even eat my freaking fix without me getting into trouble.

I could almost hear my Dad's voice inside my head telling me how a trouble magnet I was.

Oh, well it was not like my fault if I was born to create chaos, right? There must have some law out there to legalize these things don't you think?

This time around though, it's gotten way out of my comfort zone and I needed some help.

Well, kind of.

These here were real desperate times and only one man that comes to mind who could do the job without so much of a bloodshed. I do prefer my enemies' blood than my own though.

If only I have another choice here, I would rather rot in hell than contact this man again. But the ugly truth was, I don't really want to die. Not yet anyways, so I might push aside my pride for this one.

His name was Ricardo Carlos Manoso or popularly known to his street name Ranger and he preferred it that way.

He was a Cuban- American who lives by his own rules and only wears anything with Black. Black shirt, black cargo pants and drives black new immaculate expensive cars.

He was a primo Bounty Hunter, entrepreneur and among other things. Last time I heard he was having an itty-bitty affair to his colleague named Stephanie Plum which unfortunately for me was also the one who got my files and have all the rights to apprehend me to get back on the system. Not that I kept tabs on him, but the street whispers and the wind blew this type of gossips on my aerial proximity.

Fine!!

I might look into him once in a while, but that was it, I promise.

My hands were visibly shaking and my teeth were clattering. I was soaked from the rain, but I couldn't let myself go inside into his "architecturally" challenged house. Actually, the house suited him. It was too outrageously way off for his macho image he was sporting nowadays, but no one knew about it so I think he was doing a great job on keeping this piece of trash.

I knew from past experience that the security cameras planted around the house already caught a glimpse of me and the security control panel had already tipped off Ranger that a crazy woman was lurking in his front yard.

But hey, I was a woman in-charge here, so they could wait until I'd decided to break in illegally or not right?

I still had the key of the Batcave though, but I was just having a little problem here.

See, if I go one more step further than the invisible line I drew up years ago, I'd be officially owned by him again. Ranger regards me as his property and I hated that shit. Not to mention the fact that it felt like eating what I'd already thrown up. That was just too gross if you asked me.

"You know, you got no other option on here, but to ask his freaking help." A voice in my head reasoned.

"Shut up, bitch!" I snapped.

"Just go inside, already it's freaking 3:00 a.m. and I'm fucking starving."

Ha! Great, I was fighting with my own self.

I took several deep breaths and whispered some inventive deals with God and pressed the key fob and the gate swung open and I let myself in. So, he hadn't changed anything?

Some security freak he was!

When inside, I aimed for the front door 'cause there was no used in sneaking in the kitchen door now since he already knew I was here and probably waiting for me with one hand drawn on his Glock and very much ready for the kill.

I pressed another code and the garage gate swung open for me where I could find the door that led me towards Ranger's personal lair.

The upper part of the house was beyond ugly, but beyond that, 6 feet under, one of Ranger's many twisted humor, boy was a wow. I couldn't form a coherent word to describe how perfectly classy and state of the art all the amenities and decorations were. And of course, his security gizmos and shit was everywhere, neatly kept in its respective places.

He was such a security and paranoid freak!!

I wasn't kind of ready for what happens next though. My breath left me at the sight of him waiting for me at the door with a smug grin on his annoying face.

--A/N: Edited 3.11.16