Nightwing

Chapter 1: One step higher

My name is Stephanie Plum.

My Hungarian and Italian heritage has left me with brown curly hair and blue eyes. My small and adorable nose is all mine.

I work as a bounty hunter for my cousin Vinnie and have been at it for nearly four years now.

During that time I've been thrown in garbage, shot at, set on fire, had a bomb taped to me, kidnapped several times, held hostage, flung off a bridge and handcuffed naked to my shower rod.

My now-permanently-ex-boyfriend, Joseph Morelli, was responsible for that last part.

Morelli is a dark haired and dark eyed 6 foot of pure Italian stud Police Detective with testosterone leaking out of his ears.

When I was 6, he taught me a game called Choo-Choo, where I was the tunnel and he was the train. Unsurprisingly, we only played in his dad's garage and if I was wearing either a skirt or a dress.

And when I was 16, he relieved me of my virginity on the floor of a bakery I worked at. Three years later, I ran him over and broke his leg. Revenge is best served cold.

Joe was also one of my first FTAs (fail to appear) with a high bond which I really needed if I wanted to keep a roof over my head. Turns out, the schmuck was clean of his accusation and I suddenly had boyfriend who really liked to share my bed.

About a month ago, he came to my apartment and told me about his new promotion. Yeah, of course I was happy for him. The only catch was he expected me to move to Idaho, marry him and be a house wife and mother to half a dozen kids.

So after a little quarrelling, arguing, him-accusing-me-of-seeing-Ranger and a beer bottle hitting the opposite wall on my part, we decided to call it quits. For good.

Whose Ranger you ask?

Well, Ricardo Carlos Manoso is Trenton's very own Batman. Only with a housekeeper named Ella instead of Alfred the Butler.

Commonly known as Ranger, he's 6ft of mocha-latte muscled deliciousness with dark brown eyes and smooth black hair he ties back in a low pony tail.

He owns a high security branch called Rangeman. Like me, only...better, he also catches FTAs with high bonds that I would never be able to handle on my own.

The Rangeman employees or Merry Men as I like to call them, are nothing but the best of 200 pounds of pure muscle and the army of big brothers I never had who also love to place bets on how long a car lasts with me as the driver.

Once, for one glorious night, Ranger was my lover. I was one of the very few people who saw this incredible Adonis naked.

Even the morning after, when he told me to be with Morelli, I was still hired to take on jobs for Rangeman which once paid off my rent for the rest of the year.