BountyHunterpart1

His jeans were low on his hips, a worn black leather belt woven through the loops. The hot wind kicked up sand against the denim and sprinkled against the leather of his boots. A patterned long-sleeve shirt was tucked in and unbuttoned exposing a thin white T-shirt underneath.

He pursed his lips and tucked a few wild strands of hair behind his ear. He halfway smiled behind the dark sunglasses. Looking out over the horizon, he was waiting.

"What're you doing?" The voice from behind him made his shoulders sag. "Michael, what are you doing? You look like you're posing for a beer commercial."

"Just standing around Isabel, just standing around." Michael Guerin sighed and looked at his partner. "Did you want something?"

"Uh�Yeah," Isabel Evans clicked her tongue at him. "There's a skip trace that needs to be picked up downtown. Are you available or should I check with your secretary?" Her remarks were dry and dripped with sarcasm.

"Yeah I'm available, what's the story?" Michael took off his sunglasses and frowned.

"Bad checks."

"Bad checks," he repeated and laughed. "Wow. I don�t know if I can handle that or not. I mean, the guy might write on me and kill me. Whew. The drama."

"Oh God," she rolled her eyes. "You knew as well as I did when I started this-"

"We. When we started this."

"Oh yes, when we started this, with my money, that it wasn't going to be all glory and no bullshit. For every big bounty there's a hundred little dinky ones that pay the bills and your cut, Michael. Do we really have to go over this again?"

Michael shook his head. The last thing he wanted to do was go over it again. He was pretty sure the first thirty times had been enough. He took the file from her hand and wondered if he'd ever be able to get the big score. To track down the one person who could make him rich.

"Did we go to high school with this guy?" He asked Isabel who had taken to examining her nails. "Iz?"

"Uh�Yeah, I think so. Just take him in and get the body receipt, okay?" She rolled her eyes at him before walking back into the storefront office they rented.

"'Get the body receipt'," he mimicked when she was back inside the building. "Get the fucking body receipt. I swear if I hear that from her one more time�" Michael sighed looking out across the horizon as the sun melted into the land in a pool of hazy purple and yellow. When he had signed up to be a bounty hunter, a Fugitive Apprehension Agent, he corrected himself, he never thought how boring it was going to be waiting around and tracking down the crazy bad check writers of New Mexico.

"Are you going to go or what?" Isabel's voice came from the doorway.

Michael nodded and walked to his truck with the file tucked under his arm. When he started the engine the air conditioner blasted out at him and the radio blared something hard and loud making his chest vibrate, just the way he liked it.

Him and Isabel had gotten together a few years ago with the idea to open a business. Sure, he hadn't had much money, but he was smart and he came up with the original idea. It hadn't taken much to suck Isabel into his idea, her brother Max had deemed them both crazy, but Isabel saw something in Michael that few others rarely did. She saw passion.

Now Michael waited. He waited for the big score. The one bounty that would make him rich and put him on the map as a top-notch fugitive apprehension agent. He had no idea one was on the way right towards him. He had no idea that the bounty in question carried a lot of extra baggage.

* * *
She held a glass-bottled lemonade to her forehead letting the condensation run down her nose. It was hot. Too hot. Sweat trickled down in-between her breasts. Her denim shirt was buttoned once in the middle and tied at the bottom leaving her stomach bare between the shirt and the jeans that hugged her hips. The shirt was sleeveless, under hot duress, she's ripped the sleeves off a few days earlier. She adjusted her sunglasses and loosened the dark blue bandanna around her neck.

She shaded her eyes over the Nevada desert, the lights and sounds of Las Vegas at her back.

"I'll get you, just wait. You can't slip by me and not think that I'll track your ass down and haul it in," she laughed to herself. "After all, I'm Maria DeLuca and one of the best damn bounty hunters around."

She turned back towards the city and walked to her jeep. She thought she knew where the bounty was headed and she was going to follow her instincts. Name of the game; always stay one step ahead.

TBC