BountyHunterpart4

Maria DeLuca stepped out of the shower into the coolness of the air-conditioned hotel room. The room was typical, just like the dozens upon dozens she had crashed at before. She whimpered slightly at the cold as she scrambled to her bag. Her hands landed on a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a white tank shirt. She dressed while her dirty blond hair dripped cold water down her arms and back.

"First I'm too hot and then I'm too cold," she talked to herself, as she tended to do a lot. She considered herself her own best friend.

Growing up in San Francisco, with an Uncle she had barely known before moving in with him, in an area that used to be family oriented but had since turned towards the seedy side in the past few years had taught her a lot about human nature.

Human nature. You can always go home again. And that's what Maria was banking on. That Liz Parker was going to go home again.

She slipped on a short-sleeve button down shirt and running shoes and slung a tan canvas backpack over her shoulder before stepping back outside into the heat. She reached her jeep and put the faceplate back on the stereo only to be welcomed to Patsy Cline crooning about being crazy for loving some man.

"You got that right, Pats." Maria slipped on sunglasses and ran a hand through her rapidly drying hair. "Love is for the crazy." She scanned through the stations until she found something a little more appropriate for the morning: the eighties.

She checked the map she had picked up at a gas station outside of town and then her case notes. Nancy Parker, Liz's mother, was first on the short list of people to see.

As she sped out of the parking lot, her stomach growling, she spotted a drive-thru restaurant and made a beeline for it. Eating on the road was one of the hazards of doing what she did for a living. Being a bounty hunter was hard work; a female one was even harder. People tended not to take the petite woman very seriously at first. They did as soon as they realized she meant business and that had earned her the admiration from peers and bail bondsmen along the West Coast.

Maria DeLuca always got what she was after.

* * *

"Don't you ever go home?" Michael asked as he walked into the office to find Isabel at her desk, a mountain of paperwork in front of her.

"What are you doing here? Early night?" She cocked her head to one side and then grinned vehemently. "Oh wait, it was an early night, wasn't it? I heard your night pretty much ended after you told my brother his high school crush was a wanted woman! Damn it Michael! How can you be so damn insensitive?"

He sat in the chair across from her and put his feet up on her desk. They were instantly knocked off. He smiled. "I thought he should know."

"And you didn't think I would tell him?"

Michael shrugged. "He's my friend, Iz-"

"Stop," she held up her hand to him. "I don't even want to know your reasoning. I don't want to hear any of your shit today, okay?"

He made a hissing noise and instantly regretted it. He shifted in his chair and had the feeling of being back in the principal's office in high school. Not many people could unnerve Michael Guerin. Isabel Evans was definitely one. He knew if he didn't think of her as the sister he never had, they'd end up in a cage match and he wasn't sure who would be the one to walk out.

"Bad night, Iz?" His tone became softer as it usually did when something was wrong with Isabel. "Alex?"

Alex Whitman had been Isabel's boyfriend since high school. It never got too serious and they dated other people during their off moments, but Michael knew how much she cared about him even if she refused to admit it. A foul mood was usually connected to something not working quite right in the Isabel/Alex plan.

"Michael," she sighed his name and shook her head. "Why are men complete idiots?"

He halfway smiled at her and tried to come up with a witty comeback. He failed and just shook his head and shrugged. He learned a long time ago not to fall into the Isabel/Alex relationship issues. That was one of the reasons why he wasn't in a relationship. Too many issues.

"Thank you for all your help. Anyway, did you read over the paperwork on Liz last night after you destroyed my brother?"

"I didn't destroy him," he rolled his eyes and longed for the dark glasses he'd left on the dash in his truck. "And yes, I did some reading."

"Can you find her?"

"I can find her. I will find her," the thrill of the hunt was on. "I will find her and haul her scrawny ass in before this Marie DeLu�Whatever can say 'go'."

Isabel smirked at him. "So you want to know anything about this Maria DeLuca? I've been doing a little research on her."

"Nope," he shrugged. "Probably won't even run into her."

Isabel nodded and smiled. "So you're going to start on this, like, now?"

"Yeah, I was just waiting until I thought it would be a decent time before I go knocking on Ms. Parker's door to inquire about her felon daughter."

"I can't get an answer at her father's place in Montana�"

"We'll find her Iz. We'll find her and then I bet everything's going to change." He tapped the folder he had brought in with him. "One thing I can't figure out though. Why? I mean, why did Liz Parker steal all this money."

"Why does anyone steal money?" She bugged her eyes out at him and shrugged.

"No, I mean�Oh, fuck it." He stood and looked at the watch on her wrist. "I guess it's not too early to go see if Ms. Parker knows where her daughter is, right?"

"Go ahead, Michael. I'm sure she won't be the least bit pleased to see a freakin' bounty hunter on her doorstep looking for her daughter whether it's eight in the morning or eight at night. Keep me posted; if you get nothing from her, come back. There's a couple skips that I have for you as well."

"Business is picking up," he smiled thoughtfully as he reached the door.

"Did you not realize that we are now the only bonding place in Roswell? The other one closed about two weeks ago." Isabel took a deep breath to hide her annoyance and turned back to the stack of papers in front of her.

Michael raised one eyebrow, shrugged, and walked out the front door.

* * *

The woman at the door was almost middle-aged but looked about ten years older; Maria peered at her flashing an award-winning smile.

"So you know Liz?" The woman pulled a button down sweater tight around her and Maria wondered if she didn't realize the temperature was hitting the third circle of hell and it was barely eight in the morning.

"Right, we went to high school together."

"Here? In Roswell?"

"Oh, no, back in Montana."

"And your name is?"

"Maria. Maria DeLuca."

"Really?" the woman sighed. "That's very interesting. It must be an extreme coincidence that Maria DeLuca is your name as well as the name belonging to someone who was hired to find my baby and take her back to Montana for something she didn't do then, huh?"

Maria damned herself for giving Nancy Parker her real name. Rookie mistake. She blamed it on the insufferable heat. "Ms. Parker-"

"If you try to lie to me and tell me that you're only here to help her, I might physically throw you off this porch."

Maria reached into her bag and pulled out a business card. She forced it into Nancy Parker's hand and took a step backwards. "Just in case." She smiled as Nancy ripped it into shreds and blew the pieces back at Maria before she retreated back into her house and slammed the door shut. "Or not."

With a deep breath and an already sweaty shirt, she retreated back towards the street and her waiting jeep. Slipping her sunglasses on she noticed a pick-up truck slowing down and then stopping in back of her jeep. She narrowed her eyes at the driver and determined it was not Liz Parker, it wasn't even a woman.

She stopped walking as the driver cut the engine an opened up his door. She slyly reached into the backpack and found the handle to the stun gun. She slipped it into her back pocket and watched as the stranger in the truck approached her.

She licked her lips as she took him in, his long strides, his long legs clad in denim. A black T-shirt tucked in and black boots. Dark glasses hid his eyes but somewhere in the back of her mind she guessed they were dark in color. She watched as his head moved down then up and knew he was checking her out.

"Who're you?" He asked as he stood merely a foot in front of her.

"Who the hell are you?"

Michael Guerin tilted his head to one side. "Michael Guerin. Bounty hunter."

Maria smirked and tilted her head in the opposite direction. "Maria DeLuca. Ditto."

TBC