AU FIC: Bounty Hunter
Author: becky rttavi@aol.com
Rating R to NC-17 to be safe
Distribution: Ask first, always.
Paring: M/M
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Roswell or the characters of Roswell. No profit is being made.
Feedback: Send it to rttavi@aol.com
Notes: AU…All the way.


Chapter One

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.

*        *        *

Chapter Two

"I got the freakin' body receipt," Michael Guerin rolled his eyes behind dark glasses as he stepped into the office. He handed Isabel Evans a slip of paper and waited for her to read it. "Wow, do you think maybe I could go on another one of those really soon? I mean, he really put up a fight when I knocked on his door and told him he had to reschedule his court appearance. It was pretty intense there for a few minutes Iz, I mean, he made me wait while he found his glasses."

"Michael." Isabel looked at him through the tops of her eyes. "The need for sarcasm is…There is no need for sarcasm." She sighed and pointed to the chair across from her desk.

Michael sat down grudgingly. He hated it when Isabel tried to pull rank with him. They were partners, but sometimes she slipped into boss mode. In the beginning they had made a deal, Isabel would take care of the office and Michael would bring in the bad guys. When they built up some cash and got more work, they would hire another bounty hunter, so until then it was just Michael Guerin.

"I think we might have one, a big one, and she's headed this way. Maybe." Isabel's dark eyes were bright with excitement. "We've been hired to track down someone who's been on the run for almost a month. There's another bonding agent after her, but so far they haven't made much progress."

"Why us?" Michael asked suspiciously taking off his sunglasses. He dropped them on the desk purposely knowing it would get a reaction from Isabel.

"Damn it!" Isabel let out a deep breath. "This is Teakwood. You do not drop things on it!"

"Right, the antique Teakwood desk you just had to have," Michael felt his hackles raising and wondered if a famous financial debate was on.

"Michael I don't-" Isabel stood behind her desk and stopped herself in mid anger outburst. She sat back down and forced a smile. "Let's not argue about this right now, okay?"

He cocked his head to one side and pursed his lips before he nodded. "Shall we argue about it later?"

"Michael," Isabel tried to cover her agitation with sickly sweetness but knew she was failing. "We have something else to discuss first."

"Shoot." He propped his boots up on the corner of her desk and waited for her to knock them off like she normally did. When she didn't, Michael replaced his feet on the floor. "What's going on?"

"Do you just pretend to listen to me?" She sat back in her chair and picked up a folder. "Or wait, do you live to annoy me?"

"It has its perks, so what's up with the big score?"

"She skipped out of Montana protective custody. She was supposed to turn states evidence and in return she was going to get a lesser sentence. She bailed from under their noses."

"What'd she do?" His eyes became wide with the anticipation of finally being able to track down a hardened criminal.

"Embezzlement." Isabel raised her eyebrows at him as his excitement deflated. "So she's not a killer, she's still worth a boatload of cash if we can bring her in."

"An embezzler," he smiled and licked his lips. "I guess I'll have to worry about her stealing the change from my ashtray, huh?"

"She's a little wacko, too. Does that help?"

He sighed, "What else you got on her?"

"She worked for an huge accounting firm and apparently the firm itself was stealing millions from their clients. She skimmed while she was setting up bogus accounts and charges for the big bosses. She made off with close to half a mil. So the state needs her back because without her, no case against the big boys."

Michael whistled low. "You said there's already someone on her tail, right?"

"Oh yeah," Isabel bit her bottom lip. "A bounty hunter out of San Francisco."

"I thought you said this took place in Montana."

"It did. She left a paper trail that led them to California."

"Why here? Why from Montana to California to Roswell New Mexico?"

Isabel's eyes sparkled. "She has family here."

"What else?" Michael knew his partner's looks better than anyone; Isabel Evans was holding something back and she was excited about it. "Iz?"

"Think back to high school."

Michael sighed, high school had been over for almost six years, he didn't want to think about high school. "Just tell me."

"Think back to Freshman and Sophomore years," she smiled brilliantly. "Who did my dear brother have a major thing for?"

Michael tilted his head to one side while names and faces ran through his memory. He smiled, "Liz Parker?"

"You got it Michael. Scrawny Liz Parker who moved away after sophomore year is now a wanted felon."

Michael leaned back in his chair, the front legs lifted off the ground, and roared with laughter. "You're kidding, right?"

Isabel shook her head. "So you think you're up for it?"

"Oh yeah, I think I can handle a little thing like Liz Parker." He stood and shook his head picking up the paperwork from the desk. "I'm out of here for the rest of the day unless you need me for anything." As he reached the front door he turned back around. "The other bounty hunter? What's his story?"

"Her story is that she's good. Very good."

"A chick?"

"A damn good chick, you may have met your match Michael Guerin." Isabel's eyes twinkled with mischief.

"What's her name?"

"Maria. Maria DeLuca."

* * *


Chapter Three

Maria DeLuca swore as she hit a pothole in the road. Interstate Forty was close, but not close enough for her. Driving over the bumps and bruises of a state highway in a hell-like temperature was enough to make her crazy.

She slid a CD into the player and felt no remorse for spending the money to get a decent car stereo. She was actually thankful that she had, otherwise the constant driving around tracking down this fugitive, Liz Parker, would be horrendous.

She sang along with the Go-Go's as the dying sun still managed to beat down on the canvas top of her jeep and the sickly hot wind whipped into her skin.

"Vacation," she laughed. "That's what I need, a freakin' vacation."

When she had been handed the file on one Liz Parker a little over two weeks ago, she accepted without question. Maria knew how to handle herself around killers; one little embezzler should have been a piece of cake.

Maria underestimated Liz Parker and let her slip right through her fingers. She promised herself that wasn't going to happen again, no one made a fool out of Maria DeLuca and got away with it.

She checked the clock on the dash, almost seven PM. She'd already been on the road for over two hours leaving her with just about twelve more to go. She was confident she'd be in Roswell New Mexico for the sunrise.

* * *

Michael Guerin leaned against the driver's side door of a two year old silver Mustang. He was waiting for Isabel's brother, Max Evans, to get out of class. The parking lot to the University was about half full and Michael couldn't help but notice all the pretty coeds as they sashayed by him on their way to somewhere else.

"Michael," a familiar voice called from a short distance.

Michael looked away from short skirts and to a man he considered a brother. Max Evans was dressed the perfect psychology student. Khaki pants and a white T-shirt, a dark green backpack slung over his shoulder completed the ensemble.

"Max," Michael smiled at the contrast between the two old friends. "Ready for a beer?"

"Always," Max followed Michael a few parking spots over to his truck after dropping of the backpack in his own car. He got in and immediately turned the volume down on the radio before Michael even started the truck.

Michael wanted to tell Max about Liz Parker so bad that he could almost taste it. He showed more restraint than normal and didn't say anything until they were side by side at the bar in their familiar watering hole, 'Little Green Bar'.

"How's my sister?" Max asked after taking a long drink from his bottled beer.

"Still the biggest pain in my ass," Michael raised his eyebrows at him and shrugged. "Otherwise, she's fine."

"So," Max bowed his head. His hair, midnight in the darkness of the bar, reflected the red neon lights from a beer sign above them. He sighed. "So what's going on?"

"Why does something have to be going on?" Michael asked innocently. As innocently as he could. There was one thing that was almost as fun as antagonizing Isabel and that was antagonizing her brother.

"Michael." Max turned and looked at the man next to him. The man who was obviously trying hard not to smile.

"Okay, fine." He motioned to the bartender for another beer. "So we got this new job today, someone who's suspected to be headed to Roswell, right?"

"Go on." Max closed his eyes for an extended blink.

"It seems this person stole a bunch of money from her company and was going to testify against them, right? But then she skipped town."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"This person, you used to know her." Michael fought a full grin.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. Remember a little crush you used to have back in high school?" He almost felt bad as he watched his friend go into a tailspin. He saw the acknowledgment spread across Max's face and then did feel bad. "Sorry."

"Liz Parker." Max's voice was barely above a whisper.

Michael nodded. "The one and only."

"Unbelievable," Max muttered into his beer.

Michael wondered if he told him as tactfully as he could have. He considered the options and realized that he had been as tactful as he was capable of. He shrugged and glanced around the room.

"You enjoy things like this, don't you Michael?"

He pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow before nodding.

"You need to get a hobby," Max laughed but the sound wasn't completely friendly. "You have got to find other ways to amuse yourself."

"I don't need a hobby."

"Then maybe you just need to get laid," Max slammed his bottle down on the bar and shook his head, laughing.

* * *
As the sun began to fold over the horizon, Maria DeLuca found herself mere miles away from Roswell. She wanted nothing more than a shower to wash away all the sweat and sand she had acquired in the last twenty-four hours.

"Elizabeth Parker," Maria said the name out loud and wondered for the hundredth time since she had lost her, how in the hell she could have lost her. Period. "I'm a trained hunter. I hunt, I find, I get paid. And here comes this little money-stealing girl with a bad dye job, and she gets away from me." She slapped the steering wheel and turned up the stereo.

As a billboard with a spaceship and two little green men on it welcomed her into the city limits of Roswell New Mexico, Maria rolled her eyes and wondered what the hell she had gotten herself into. She drove down what appeared to be the main street and veered off into the parking lot of the first hotel she saw.

"First priority, a shower." She eased the gear into neutral and set the parking brake before jumping out of the jeep. She stretched raising her hands high above her head and took in the sights of the desert town. "Then I'll see what I can dig up on little Miss Liz Parker."

* * *


Chapter Four

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."

* * *

Chapter Five

Michael bit back surprise. He wasn't expecting that and he knew it showed on his face. The 'bounty hunter' remark usually scored him a few squeals from women. Obviously not this one. This was Maria DeLuca? "So, what are you doing here?" He felt like a high school boy again and didn't like it.

"What are you doing here?" She shot back at him as the mental wheels began turning in her head. "Are you here for Elizabeth Parker?" She had a cell phone in her hand before he could respond. She was punching in numbers, her blood pressure rising. She looked back at the man in jeans and T-shirt and knew she must be getting dizzy from either the heat or the anger because he was looking pretty damn good.

"Yeah, I'm here for Liz." Michael said dully, his posture determined that he wasn't quite sure how to take the woman in front of him.

"Damn it!" Maria shouted into the phone and walked a few paces away from Michael Guerin, just out of earshot.

He watched her, bemused at her actions, amused at her spirit. He jut one hip out and pursed his lips, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh right…" Maria shouted into the phone. "Have I ever let you down before?…Save it, just fucking save it…Oh yeah, I'll get her and I'll be back. Don't fuck with me again, Marco." She looked towards Michael and shook her head as she slid the phone back into her backpack.

"Problem?" Michael asked coyly and then licked his bottom lip.

"Yeah, I have a fucking problem and it appears to be you." She strode up to him and looked up into his face. Her breath caught as he gazed down at her, an amused half-smile gracing his lips. Shit, she thought.

"How can I already be a problem when we just met? It usually takes a little while for me to be a problem," he smiled.

She smiled in spite of herself and took a step away from him. She ran her hands through her almost dry hair; setting the backpack down on the sidewalk, she retrieved a hairbrush from it and brushed her shoulder length blond hair up into a ponytail before facing the oppressing stranger again.

"So, you're a bounty hunter, huh?" Maria asked from a few feet away. "I bet when you say that it makes all the girls swoon."

"Most of them," he sighed and wondered how Isabel had known he was going to meet his match. Damn, she was good.

"Well, Guerin is it?" She asked and waited for a nod before continuing although she remembered his name. "Well Guerin, I'm here in this circle of hell for a reason, to find Parker and take her back to Montana. Try not to get in my way."

"Get in your way?" Michael raised his sunglasses by the arm and looked at the petite woman in front of him. "How about you try not to get in my way, babe."

"Babe?" Maria raised her sunglasses mimicking him.

"Yeah, babe." Michael nodded feeling cocky.

"I am not your babe," Maria smiled sarcastically.

"I didn't say my babe, just babe." He shrugged and felt the heat of repartee that he got with Isabel; yet, slightly different. This woman was a stranger. A very hot, yet very annoying stranger.

"Well, if you must call me something, even though I don't know why you would since I will blow this place as soon as I have my girl, you may call me Maria."

"Well babe," He lowered his sunglasses and grinned. "I guess I could call you Maria since I'll be seeing you around. You're not going to get Liz."

"Oh," she lowered her glasses. "I'm not?"

"No, I don't think so. See, if you were as good as apparently you think you are, then I wouldn't have been hired to do your job for you." He let the words hang in the air watching the redness creep up her neck. Bingo. Damn she has a beautiful neck.

"I will get her Guerin. Without a doubt." Her words were heavy, each one stung. Self doubt loomed heavy through her, she attributed that to the heat as well.

"Not if I get her first," he raised an eyebrow and shrugged one shoulder.

She lowered her head and smiled at the burning sidewalk trying to keep her cool. When she raised her head, she damned herself for taking in every inch of Michael Guerin. From the leather of his boots, to the black T-shirt that was sticking to him like a second skin to the eyes hiding behind dark glasses.

"No, you see, I will get her. Period."

"You won't get her," Michael smiled.

"You seem awfully confident about that."

He held up his hand, surrendering. "Maybe we could do this together, you know, considering we're both after the same thing."

"Listen," she placed her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out, only second guessing that action after it was too late. After she saw his head dip forward. "We're not friends, we're not partners, we're not going to be like some kind of cop-buddy movie. We're not going to go out for a drink and talk about work. Are you getting all of this?" She waited for his curt nod before moving on. "I'm here to do a job and do it alone."

"Okay," he said slowly as his head bobbed up and down. "Well babe, excuse me, Maria, then I guess I'll be seeing you around. Good luck to you."

"I don't need luck, Guerin, I have skill. Maybe you'll be lucky and might get some for your birthday." The smile on her own lips was annoying her.

"Ouch," he laughed and shook his head. "You're pretty tough Maria, you know that?"

"I've been called worse."

"Yeah, I bet you have." He mumbled as she turned away from him. He waited until she was just a few steps away before saying anything else. "Hey, I know Liz Parker. We went to high school together." He smiled as he watched her shoulders sag.

Maria closed her eyes at the last statement made by this Michael Guerin. So he knew Liz Parker? Great, she thought, just freaking great. She took a few more steps towards the jeep and stopped. "Quit staring at my ass, Guerin."

Michael smiled widely; he watched her get into her car and pull out onto the street.
* * *


Chapter Six

Maria turned down the radio as she drove into the depths of Roswell. Fury for being overshadowed in her work raged through her. The complete feeling of failure masked her entire being. She was good at her job and she did know it. She was one of the best; she had just made a mistake.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Liz Parker was someone she should have had in her custody minutes after getting the job. Liz Parker was a mousy office worker; a social inadequate who stumbled into a multi-million dollar fiasco and walked away with a cool half mil and all the information to nail the ringleaders.

Maria didn't care about why Liz Parker had done anything or even about the company itself that she had worked for who bilked millions from unsuspecting clients. She didn't care about the clients either; all she cared about was herself and getting her job done. There wasn't room for her to get messed up in the tangle of the reasoning behind anything; she didn't have time for that. Maria DeLuca had learned at a very young age that she could only rely on herself.

She was her own best friend but also her own worst enemy. Hiding behind a disguise of toughness and attitude was a woman who was alone in life. A woman who had a ton of acquaintances but no friends. A woman who knew she had to fend for herself and not let anyone else get in her way. In grade school her report had stated: Does not play well with others. That had stayed true for the rest of her years. Work alone. Be alone.

"Damn," she whispered as she pulled back into the parking lot of her hotel. She parked and laid her head down on the steering wheel wondering what the hell had happened to make her feel this pathetic. Then she remembered it had everything to do with Liz Parker and human nature.

Maria DeLuca grabbed the woman's hands and held them behind her back. She could smell the coloring in her hair; it was still so new. The cut was choppy and Maria wondered briefly if she had done it herself in the bathroom at a gas station, just like in the movies.

"You have to let me explain," Liz Parker pleaded trying turn around to face her captor. "You don't know anything!"

"I know that you're going to get me an awesome amount of money," Maria kicked her feet apart.

"Please, if you take me back they'll kill me!"

"That's not my problem." Maria slipped handcuffs on the newly auburn-haired woman and turned her around to face her. "Your problems are not my problems, got it?"

The bright lights and clinking of change from slot machines were almost a memory. The whitewashed cement wall in front of them outside a casino was reality. The night was drawing to a close; the sunrise was on the verge of coming attractions.

"Please," Liz's almond shaped chestnut eyes flooded with tears.

Maria felt a pang inside of her that she never had before. She actually felt sorry someone she was after. She felt sorry for the small felonious woman in her custody. Against her better judgement she tilted her head to one side and nodded slowly.
Never get involved.

"You have to help me," Liz looked around Maria nervously. "You have to believe me."

"Don't tell me what I have to do," she said full of bravado. In truth, the little woman in front of her was making her nervous with the darting eyes.

"They will kill me if they get to me," Liz said in a voice holding fear. Too much fear for one person.

"You stole money, you have evidence. You have to pay your debt to society for being a lowlife." Maria shook her head and tightened the cuffs just a bit. Just enough to make her feel in control again.

"I know, but if you take me back, they'll kill me." Her words held her truth.

Maria took a deep breath and did an internal count to five. "I have a job to do."

Liz Parker nodded and hung her head. "What's your name?"

"My name?" Maria repeated, surprised at the question. "Why?'

"I want to know the name of the person who's going to inadvertently kill me." She looked up into Maria's green eyes.

"Maria. Maria DeLuca."

"Well Maria DeLuca, you have just killed Liz Parker."

Maria waited a beat. Blood on her hands was never part of the deal. Of all the criminals who'd pleaded with her for release, this one was different. This one made Maria feel compassion. Human nature.

Without thinking it through to completion, she turned Liz back around and unlocked the handcuffs. She waited until Liz turned back to face her before speaking. "Tell me your story Liz Parker."

"Thank you," Liz looked down and rubbed her wrists as if they had been secured for hours instead of mere minutes. She clasped her hands together, fingers interlaced. "I'm sorry."

Without missing a beat, Liz Parker swung her interlocked hands up and across Maria's face. The sheer surprise and pain knocked Maria to the ground. In the few seconds it had taken to understand what was going on, Liz Parker had vanished.

That's when it became personal.

* * *

Michael shaded his eyes and peered in the window of the storefront office. He saw Isabel busy at work behind her desk, the mountain of papers still in front of her. After getting the door slammed in his face by Nancy Parker, he drove around town on the look out, hoping he'd just luck out and find Liz Parker walking down the street. After an hour of being unsuccessful he decided on heading back to the office.

Isabel looked up and smiled when the door opened. Her smiled fell when she realized it was just Michael. "I thought you were a new client."

"Sorry," he sat across from her and waited for her to look up again. His brow furrowed when he saw the tension in her eyes. "What's going on Iz? Anything I can do to help?"

She laughed and shook her head. "It's just Alex issues again."

"What he'd do now?" Michael had learned a long time ago that no matter what it was, it was going to be Alex's fault.

Her eyelids flutter for a few seconds, trying to blink back tears. "He asked me to move in with him."

Michael tilted his head and frowned. "Isn't that a good thing?"

She nodded and sighed. "It is, but I don't know what to do. Yes or no? I keep weighing the pro's and con's of doing it and they come up even."

"Do you want to?" He asked and raised his eyebrows.

She nodded and then covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide. "I guess I never asked myself that."

"See, I am good for something."

"Yes, Michael. You are good for a few things." She grinned. "So, how'd it go with Ms. Parker?"

"Do you mean before or after she slammed the door in my face?"

Isabel's shoulders sagged. "Did you get anything out of her?"

"No, but maybe Maria DeLuca did," Michael shook his head. "She beat me to her. She was walking away as I pulled up."

"So you met Ms. DeLuca," Isabel leaned back in her chair and grinned. "Whatcha think of her?"

"I think she needs an attitude adjustment." His mind drifted to the way she had got in his face and he smiled. "Big time."

"She gonna give you a run for your money?"

He nodded and pursed his lips. "Oh yeah, you can bet on it."

* * *


Chapter Seven

Isabel grinned at Michael's response. She had known this Maria DeLuca was tough and had attitude; maybe just enough to keep her illustrious partner on his toes.

"Back to you," Michael shifted in the chair, uncomfortable talking about Maria DeLuca. "So, you gonna do it? Move in with him?"

"I think so," she smiled brilliantly, sheer happiness painted on her face. "I guess it's time we quit playing around and made something…Concrete."

"You and Alex have been playing around since high school," Michael laughed. "I think it'll be a welcomed change for you both. What did Max say?"

"I didn't tell him," she folded her arms over a white tank shirt and grinned. "I do not have to tell my brother everything, besides, it's none of his business what I do."

"Do I detect some sibling problems?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"Not exactly," she rested her elbows on the papers in front of him. "Max's just getting on my nerves. All this pop psychology talk he babbles on and on about is really getting annoying, you know?"

"Oh yeah," he chuckled. "I know. Once he graduates and voyages out into the real world, he might settle it down. You know, once he realizes he's not Freud and not everyone has a complex of some kind he'll be okay."

"Does he diagnose you, too?" She asked surprised.

"All the time, he always tell me I have anti-social personality disorder."

"Really? I'm obsessive compulsive." Isabel laughed. "Okay, enough bashing of the brother, what's the next step on Liz Parker?"

He shrugged and pursed his lips. "I don't know. Are we even sure she's headed this way?"

"No," Isabel opened a folder in front of her. "We're not sure of anything. They know she grew up here and her mom is still here so the guess is that she might come home. You know, you can always go home again."

"Right," Michael leaned forward in his chair. "It's all about human nature."

"Human nature," she repeated. "You're not going to go all Max-like on me, are you? I have to make sure I can still depend on someone for sanity. And as scary as it sounds, I depend on you."

Michael looked up at her and knew it had taken a lot out of her to tell him that. As much as they bitched at each other and tried to get underneath one another's skin, they were closer than blood. Michael knew he'd be lost without Isabel and now he had verbal confirmation that she would be lost without him.

"So, you're saying I'm your voice of reason?" He asked trying to suppress a grin that he knew would drive her crazy.

"I won't say it again," she smiled and scanned the pages in front of her. "And I won't ever admit it. So let's move on. Liz Parker. Did Maria DeLuca give you any hint about what Ms. Parker said to her?"

Michael shook his head slowly.

"Oh God, you hit on her didn't you?" Isabel sighed and then laughed while rolling her eyes.

"I tried before I knew who she was," he admitted. "I didn't know that this big bad bounty hunter was going to be so damn hot!"

"Why am I not even surprised," she laughed again. "Leave it to you to hit on the one person you're in competition with."

"Well, I didn't get very far." He shifted in his chair again. "I did offer to work together on it, though."

"And?"

"She shot me down and got all tough," he grinned thinking about the small blond woman in his face telling him they weren't friends and it wasn't going to be like a cop-buddy movie. "You'll like her. I can see it already."

* * *

Maria sat leaned over in the jeep until she felt she was baked thoroughly. She wondered that if in her overheated state of mind she had scared off the one person in this freaking hot-ass town that might be able to help her track down Liz Parker. Michael Guerin.

She sat back against the leather seat and nearly screamed when it scorched her skin. She turned around and pulled a T-shirt from the back seat. She put it on over the bucket seat as a makeshift seat cover and then leaned back again. Warm, yes. Searing skin, no.

"Okay DeLuca," she picked up her soft drink from the drive-thru and rolled the waxy cardboard coolness against her forehead. "These are your options. You can either go back into your hotel room and lay on top of the air conditioner or you can get to work and start finding out everything you can about little Miss Liz Parker."

It wasn't even about the money anymore; Liz Parker had used Maria's fleeting compassion against her. She felt like a fool for letting it happen and she wasn't about to let it happen again. No one made a fool out of Maria DeLuca and got away with it.

She weighed the options and wasn't happy about either one of them. She was in a town she knew nothing about. She didn't have any connections here like she did on the West Coast and Vegas. Maria DeLuca was completely alone.

Sure, she knew she had all the important paperwork on Liz Parker. She'd already managed to blow it with the mother and now she was at a dead-end.

It had been eight years since Liz Parker had been in Roswell; a lot can change in eight years. Changes Maria had no idea about. Maybe nothing had changed in eight years. Maybe nothing ever changed in Roswell for all she knew.

Maybe some things were about to change in Roswell.

She took a deep breath and turned the radio up before backing out of the parking place.

* * *

"So, are you just going to sit here all day and wait for Liz Parker to walk in the front door and turn herself in?" Isabel asked after several minutes of silence and non-motion from Michael.

"You think she will?" He asked with sarcastic joviality.

"Why don't you go and check out the bus station and the train station. If she's coming to Roswell, she has to get here some how." Isabel kicked at his legs underneath her desk. "Shoo!"

Michael sat up in the chair and thought about egging Isabel on about something, anything; but his constant ribbing sometimes erupted into a mind shattering argument and he just wasn't in the mood. He'd already been severely told off by one beautiful woman today, he didn't need it done a second time.

He stood and pulled his sunglasses off of his head as the bell above the door chimed. Both Isabel and Michael turned towards the door but only one of them knew the person who walked in.

"Oh, shit." Michael sighed.

* * *
Chapter Eight

Maria DeLuca stepped into the store front office not really by choice, but by urgency. Biting the bullet and asking for help was not something she was used to doing, ever. Doing it this time was only a matter of principle. She knew with easy comfort she could do it alone, she had tracked down more hardened criminals than Liz Parker; but alone would take more time. And Liz had made it personal.

She took a step towards Michael Guerin and wondered how it could be so damn hot inside the office; then she realized it was just her. She took of her sunglasses and looked at the offending man and a stunningly beautiful woman who came to stand next to him.

Great, a girlfriend.

She shook her head and licked her lips taking in the comfort factor of the two strangers in front of her and her own stupidity.

"Hi." Maria stepped a little closer to them. "Nice desk," she ran her hand along the length of teakwood.

"Thank you." Isabel beamed and casually kicked Michael in the shin.

"Maria DeLuca," Michael said her name slowly and waited for her to look at him before extending his arm towards Isabel. "This is Isabel Evans, my partner. Isabel, the infamous Maria DeLuca."

Isabel extended her hand to the smaller blond woman in front of her. "Nice to meet you," she smiled brilliantly clasping Maria's hand. "You have an impressive record."

Maria blushed and wondered when she had gotten so shy and if it had anything to do with the man in front of her who seemed to be drinking her in. Maybe Isabel wasn't his girlfriend. "Thank you."

"Yeah Iz," Michael nodded. "But remember, Maria and I? We're not friends, we're not partners and we're not a cop-buddy movie. We will not go out for a drink and talk about work." Michael smiled tight-lipped at Maria and nodded once. "Right?"

"Right," Maria said the word slowly and wondered how in the hell she could have gotten herself into such a mess.

"So, did you find her already? Liz, I mean." Michael crossed his arms over his chest and wondered why he was being such an ass. It was part of his nature to act that way, but he had the feeling it was going to run a little higher with Maria DeLuca.

"Michael." Isabel warned him with her tone. "You'll have to excuse my partner, he's the captain of the jackass committee."

"And I'm looking for a co-captain," Michael shot back at her. "Interested?"

Maria smiled in spite of herself and almost laughed. They were comical, if nothing else, she gained a moment of humor from coming here. A moment of humor before a mountain of humility.

Isabel rolled her eyes. "So, what can we do for you?"

Maria took a deep breath and sat down in front of the desk. She watched as Isabel sat across from her and then felt the heat radiating off Michael as he sat next to her. "Well, earlier today I may have come across a little…"

"Bitchy?" Michael supplied and then yelped when Isabel's boot made contact with his shin for a second time.

Maria turned her head and faced him. "Something like that."

Michael smiled and looked across the desk to his partner and nodded. "See, I was right."

"And now this is the part where you tell me that you came across like a..." She looked at Isabel for help, already sensing a bond with the woman.

"Jackass," Isabel grinned.

"Right, a jackass." Maria laughed.

"This is bullshit," Michael shook his head. "I will not sit here and have you two tag team me. Forget it."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Maria suppressed a grin. "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Maria DeLuca."

"Not playing," Michael turned his head.

"Michael." Isabel warned him again.

"This is stupid, why are you here?"

Maria took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I might need some help."

"From me?" Michael asked feigning mock surprise. "Maybe after my birthday, remember, maybe I'll get some skill wrapped up in a pretty box with a giant loopy bow on it."

Maria hated it when her words were thrown back at her, even if she deserved it. She stood and extended her hand to Isabel, who shook it firmly. "Okay, sorry to bother you and I'll be on my way."

"Maria, wait." Isabel stood and glared down at her partner.

"No," Maria held her hands up. "It's okay. I see where I made mistake already." She glanced at Michael and raised her eyebrows before walking to and then out the front door.

"I can't believe you were so rude," Isabel sat back in her chair in a huff. "Seriously. What is your problem?"

Michael wasn't looking at Isabel, he was watching Maria DeLuca as she got into her jeep and pulled the rubberband from her hair. "What?" He snapped and turned back around. "What?"

"God Michael, I've never seen you like this." Isabel tapped a pen against her teeth.

"Like what?" His eyes narrowed.

"So flustered around a woman, she really got to you, didn't she?"

Michael didn't answer. It was one thing to admit it to himself, it was another altogether to admit it out loud. Especially to Isabel Evans.

* * *
Chapter Nine

Maria yanked the rubberband out of her hair and fought the urge to look back at the store front office and give Mr. Michael Guerin the finger. She slammed the jeep into drive and sped out of the parking lot leaving a dust storm in her wake.

"Mr. Michael 'Jackass' Guerin can kiss my ass at this point," she muttered under her breath. "Here I am trying to be all cooperative after being the bitch with a chip on her shoulder and what do I get in return? Nothing. I get nothing. I go to him with my tail between my legs and he makes me feel like a fool." She roared through a town she didn't know. "Again, no one makes a fool out of Maria DeLuca."

Maria turned the radio back up and listened with deaf ears. Her hope was to see Liz Parker cross the street in front of her and call it a day. She also knew enough about hope that calling it a day seemed the most illogical thing in the world that would happen.

After driving around aimlessly in a town she wasn't familiar with, she decided to go back to her hotel and think things through. See if the bonding agent she was working for, Marco, had any contacts in this circle of hell.

After walking into her hotel room and jacking the air conditioner down to somewhere close to freezing, she lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. She sat up and stripped off her tank shirt and flung it across the room before lying back down. The air kicked into high and she finally felt comfortable. A question of why any reasonable person would want to live so close to hell floated through her mind. Then she remembered, that each person had their own personal hell. So hers happened to be Roswell New Mexico.

She rolled over on her belly and kicked her boots off letting them fall to the floor. Listening to the hum of an air conditioner left over from the seventies, Maria drifted off to sleep. She didn't fight it, maybe, she reasoned, she just needed some sleep and then all her questions would be answered.

* * *

"You're not going to just hang out here with me today, are you?" Isabel asked nervously after Michael hadn't budged from the seat across from her in almost an hour.

"I don't know, Iz. You sound like you don't want me to, which automatically makes me want to sit on your lap." He raised his eyebrows and cocked his head to one side.

"I can't believe she got to you so fast," Isabel mumbled while stacking a pile of folders from the mountain of paperwork.

"There's something about her…" Michael drifted in his thought process. He always found it strange that he could confide in Isabel his women-related problems and/or issues much easier than he could with her brother. He could tell Isabel anything; it was choice that made him keep some things to himself.

"I know what it is," she smiled demurely behind the folder in her hands.

"Okay, hot shot, what is it?" Michael leaned forward and rested his elbows on the precious Teakwood.

"You can't," she made air quotes with her fingers, "get her because she's too much like you." Isabel's eyes twinkled.

Michael pursed his lips before laughing out loud. "Are you high?"

"Seriously, you both think you're some type of big bad ass, but if Maria DeLuca is even close to the what I saw in her, then you're both big softies inside a gruff exterior."

He grabbed her arm and straightened it out in front of her, running his finger along the crease of her elbow. "I don't see the track marks…"

She pulled her arm back and kicked him under the desk for the third time that day.

"Quit it. You can't see it because you're just like her. Okay, you told me you offered to work together with her this morning. How hard was that for you?"

"It just kind of slipped out," he shrugged. "But would I have been thinking about it and not just staring at her, then it would have been terribly hard."

"Exactly, so how hard do you think it was for her to come here and ask for help?" Isabel rolled her eyes and wondered how Michael functioned in life.

"I guess it was pretty hard for her and I was a jackass."

"Oh yeah, King of the Jackasses if you must know the truth."

"When I need some kind words I always know where to come," he rolled his eyes and laughed. "So what are you thinking, Iz? Should I go and grovel?"

"Grovel?" She started laughing so hard she nearly choked. "I didn't even think you knew what that word meant! I should mark this day on the calendar, the day that Michael Guerin grovels."

"Ha ha. So, you want some help going through whatever your doing?" He motioned to the desk. "Before I track her down and grovel?"

"Sure," she handed him a stack of folders and explained the order the papers on the inside should be in. "Then, when we're done I just might take you out to lunch before you go and grovel. And if Maria DeLuca accepts whatever your pitiful attempt at an apology is, then you two can figure out together your next step. If she doesn't, I suggest you stake out Ms. Nancy Parker's home and wait for the return of her wayward daughter."

He saluted her and regretted it as the toe of her shoe met his shin for the forth time. Almost a new record.

* * *

Maria rolled over and opened one eye. The room looked like all the others she had stayed in on various tracking expeditions. From the same smooth polyester patterned bedspread that matched the room-darkening drapes to the same dark veneer on the particle board furniture.

"Life has got to be better than this," she sat up and rubbed her eyes wondering if her neighbor back home in San Francisco was remembering to feed her fish. She smiled thinking about the five Angel fish she had waiting at home for her; her family.

The fish were the only family she had left that she knew about after her Uncle had died almost two years earlier. Even her Uncle hadn't been known family until she was five and the car accident death of her parents forced her to live with the only brother of her father.

It had been rocky for awhile, while the little girl didn't understand why she had to live with a stranger. Then they became friends.

Uncle Chuck DeLuca was a bad ass bounty hunter until he met his untimely death by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A hold-up in a convenience store a few blocks away from his home had left Chuck DeLuca with a bullet in his head that would kill him two days later. Stepping in to defend the scared female clerk behind the counter, Chuck DeLuca defended her with his life.

Maria closed her eyes thinking about Chuck, he hated being called Uncle Chuck, always said it made him feel old, and smiled. She knew he would be proud of her and she was convinced he watched over her. She carried on the DeLuca name and she did it proudly.

She almost thought about calling her neighbor and asking if her fish were okay. If the largest in the tank, Chuck, was okay. She decided against it knowing that her eighty-two year old widowed neighbor, Lenora, was perfectly competent of taking care of a few Angel fish. And probably a little snooping as well. As Lenora liked to tell Maria, she lived vicariously through her. She missed her fish and she missed Lenora.

She stood up and stretched pushing all wishy-washy feelings away. She picked her tank shirt up from the floor and put it back on. She thought her body had finally reached a normal temperature and wondered how long it would last before she wanted to take a bath in ice cubes. A glance at the bolted down alarm clock informed her it was after one in the afternoon.

She grabbed her cell phone and called Marco, whose secretary told her he was conveniently out of the office. She hung up and rolled her eyes at the lame lie.

She groaned and grabbed her bag and sunglasses ready to venture back out into the heat. Ready to find Liz Parker. Ready to rub it in Michael Guerin's face when she did. Ready for lunch.

She walked to her jeep after asking the counter clerk where she could sit down and eat lunch; drive-thru's just didn't cut it all the time. She got directions and laughed out loud when she pulled up in front of the suggested venue, the Crashdown Café.

She smiled at the sheer absurdity of a flying saucer with flashy lights crashing into the building above the door. She parked and walked inside and was immediately assaulted with more alien gaudiness and food smells that made her mouth water.
* * *

Chapter Ten

Maria took a seat at the counter and read over the menu full of alien-themed items. The woman behind the counter took her order for a simple cheeseburger, fries and lemonade.

"I hate this town and I hate my job," the words came from the man who had taken the seat next to her while she had been ordering.

She didn't look at him, that would only give him a reason to continue to bitch and moan. She stared directly ahead of her and waited for her lunch while the man next to her continued to mumble. She realized he wasn't talking to her and he didn't seem like he wanted a conversation either; he just seemed…disgruntled. Chancing a cursory glance in his direction she realized he was pretty normal looking, not the space case wacko she was expecting.

His hair was dark brown and cut short against his head with sideburns reminiscent of the 90210 days. He was younger than she expected, probably close to her own age. He was in uniform and she tried to read the company name embroidered on the front pocket without being overtly obvious. As Maria DeLuca should have known the way her day had gone so far, it wouldn't work.

The mumbling man held his shirt pocket out so she could see it. "It say's Tuesday Security and above that is my name, Kyle."

Maria felt herself blush getting caught in the act. "I'm sorry…"

"Whatever," he released his pocket and picked up the glass of water sitting in-between them.

"That's my water," Maria frowned and folded her arms over her chest.

He looked sideways at her and grinned before drinking it. "I'm sorry," he set the half-empty glass down in front of her. "Please, take your water back, Princess."

"You have a chip on your shoulder," she remarked while trying to figure out why the man wasn't on the floor yet with her knee placed strategically in the small of his back.

"I know," he replied honestly and sighed. "I do and I'm sorry. I promise I'm not usually the type to sit around talking to myself, I've just had a shitty day. Do you ever have days like that?"

"I have them all the time, I understand." Maria smiled as her lunch was placed in front of her. She picked up her cheeseburger and took a huge bite feeling the strangers eyes on her. After she finished chewing and swallowing, she turned back to him. "Is there something wrong?"

He shrugged. "No, not really. Are you from around here? Or are you here for some alien shin-dig?"

Maria shook her head and smiled. "No, just passing through town."

"Yeah, well, let me give you a little advice. Keep passing. Roswell will do nothing to you except piss you off."

Maria fought the smile, he was right. So far Roswell had done nothing except piss her off. Okay, she conceded, Roswell hadn't actually been responsible for pissing her off, Michael Guerin had.

"Maria?"

Maria turned around towards the vaguely familiar feminine voice coming from in back of her. Isabel something. Beside her was the man of her thoughts. Great.

"I thought that was you!" Isabel gushed and sat down on the other side of her. "I guess you found out the best place in town to get a burger, huh?"

Maria nodded and looked past the woman to the man on the other side of her. "They let animals in here? Isn't that against the health code?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

Michael laughed a little harder than he wanted to. "You're funny DeLuca. I mean, seriously, a real laugh riot. You should think about taking your show in the road."

Maria wanted to reach across the pretty Isabel and thwack him in the forehead but at the same time she wanted to lick his neck and see if it was as salty as it looked. She closed her eyes and wished away all sexual desires she had. There was a time and place for those and sitting in the alien restaurant with the object of a deepening sexual fantasy a few feet away from her was neither.

"I'd like to apologize for my associate-" Isabel smiled sweetly at Maria before being interrupted by Michael leaning over her.

"Partner, Isabel, partner."

She rolled her eyes and smiled again when she saw the corners of Maria's mouth twitch upward. "I'd like to apologize on behalf of my partner," she emphasized the word and looked at Michael before turning back to Maria. "He isn't very good with people and he might have come across a little more insolent than usual this morning."

"Isn't he able to apologize for being a jackass by himself?" Maria batted her eyelashes in Michael's direction and hoped it didn't come across as flirting. Or did she?

"Well," Michael licked his lips and raised an eyebrow. "I guess if he thought he had a reason to apologize, he would."

"Michael." Isabel glanced sternly at him.

Michael inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry for being a jackass."

Maria smiled and wondered exactly what kind of hold Isabel had on Michael. There was something strong between them, not sexually fused, but still strong. "Apology accepted." She held her hand out in front of Isabel and ran her tongue over her front teeth.

Michael clasped her hand wishing he would have wiped it on his jeans first. Sweaty palms was not the way to impress. Impress? He wasn't sure why this woman, this woman who was a pain in his ass, was affecting him like she was. He didn't like it, but would deal with it. Looking across Isabel into the clear green eyes of Maria DeLuca, Michael Guerin knew he could deal with a lot.

Isabel clasped her hands together in a mock prayer, her eyes tilted towards the sky.

"You know them?" The forgotten about mumbling man next to Maria asked her.

"I'm sorry?" She turned back to him, her eyes wide. "Uh…Yeah, I do."

"Valenti," Michael stood up and walked around to Kyle from Tuesday Security and clapped him on the back. "How's it going?"

"Its going, Guerin."

Michael looked at Maria while keeping his hand on Kyle's back. "This is Kyle Valenti and as I can see you have already met him."

"Not officially," Maria extended her hand to the non-threatening mumbler. "Maria DeLuca, nice to meet you."

Kyle shook her hand and smiled. "You're not…I mean, they're not here for you…Right?" He let go of her hand and pointed at her, a look somewhere between amazement and confusion plastered on his face.

"Me?" Maria pointed to herself and laughed. "No, not here for me. I'm kind of one of them."

"Cool," Kyle shrugged off Michael's hand that was still on his back.

"So, Maria," Isabel drew the attention back to her. "I was wondering, since you and Michael have made up and are starting off fresh, would you consider working together on this…" She shifted her eyes to Kyle for just a second, "Job?"

Maria looked thoughtfully at her and weighed her options. Work alone and suffer in the pit of hell until she stumbled across Liz Parker, or work with who was becoming her sexual fantasy and get the hell out of dodge as fast as she could. She looked over her shoulder to Michael and winked before turning back to Isabel. "Yeah, I think we can play nice together."

* * *

Chapter Eleven

"Well, if you two can play nice then it'll be a first," Isabel smiled and raised first one eyebrow then the other. "Michael tends not to play well with others."

"Yeah, I got that feeling from him." Maria grinned and thought they could have been talking about herself just as easily as Michael Guerin.

"What feeling was that?" Michael leaned over her shoulder, his breath on her neck.

Maria closed her eyes and wished herself away from the position she was in. Again, she began to attribute everything to the heat. The fact that the air conditioning in the café was nearly frigid did not escape her. Maybe working with someone she wanted to throw down on the counter and seriously molest was not in her best interest after all. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head towards him and opened her eyes, barely an inch away from his face. Their noses would have touched had either of them broken out of their statue state. She licked her lips while keeping her eyes trained on his. "The feeling that you don't get along too well with others."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how well I get along with you," he raised an eyebrow at her and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "Won't we?"

She nodded slightly, careful not to run into his face with her nose and then leaned back, thankful to be a little further apart from him. Thankful for the fresh air that flushed through her whipping out the intoxication of sex appeal.

"Oh God," Kyle Valenti rolled his eyes which earned him a smile from Isabel. "Were you two separated at birth?"

"Are you actually in this conversation, Valenti?" Michael stood up straight and put on his tough guy façade. The release of any type of emotion was better than doing what he wanted to do. He wanted to throw this Maria DeLuca down on the counter and rip her shirt off; somehow he knew that was not an option and probably never would be.

"Nope, just amused." Kyle grinned as his lunch was placed in front of him. "Just amused."

"Hey Kyle," Isabel broke through the sexual tension and surrendered a warning glance to her partner. "How's the security thing going?"

"Do you really want to know Isabel?" He set his burger down and sighed. "It sucks. It actually sucks so bad, I don't know what could possibly suck more than being a security guard in a shopping mall. Now that I've had a minute to think about it, yes I do know what could suck more. A security guard in a shopping mall who has 'Tuesday Security' on his shirt. Do you know that all day, all I can think about that daughter from the Addam's Family?"

Isabel smiled and hid a laugh behind her hand. "Her name was Wednesday."

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Kyle slapped the countertop with his palm and laughed. "No wonder everyone looks at me like I'm high whenever I mention that!"

"I always liked her," Michael said and walked back to the other side of Isabel. "She had spunk."

"Kyle, nice to meet you," Maria slid some money on the counter and stood up; her food appetite had been replaced by one that she didn't want to think about. "Isabel? Always a pleasure." She took a step towards Michael and felt the heat in-between her legs. "Well, Guerin, shall we get to work or what?"

He grinned and slid his sunglasses from the top of his head to the bridge of his nose and peered out over the rims at her. He pursed his lips and halfway smiled. "Sure DeLuca, let's get to work."

Isabel scooted over to Maria's vacated chair next to Kyle and the two them watched the bad ass bounty hunters leave.

Michael followed her out of the café while wiping his hands on his jeans. He tried to swagger, but the muse of attraction was weighing him down. He watched Maria DeLuca walk and admired the way her shorts hugged her hips and rode high on her thighs. Her strong calf muscles sculpted into socks and boots. A line of sweat had broken out on her back and was seeping through her tank shirt.

"You wanna drive?" She turned around and faced him, the midday heat beating down into her scalp; she assumed it was frying her brain because all she could think about while watching Michael Guerin walk closer to her was him naked and underneath her.

"Yeah," he pulled keys from his pocket and noticed his palms were sweaty again. No woman had ever had that kind of effect on him before. "No." He looked around with the sudden memory of Isabel driving to the café and grinned. "I mean, I will, but I don't have my truck."

Maria grinned and felt her nipples tighten. "Back at the office?" With a nod for an answer she motioned towards her jeep. "I'll drive us there and then you can drive me." She blushed. "I mean, then you can drive from there…" Her attempt at covering up the Freudian slip was futile. She had thrown the cards on the able and wondered if she'd be dealt a joker.

Don't get involved. It's just a job with an extremely hot man. Who care's if you haven't been able to have any type of relationship for the last three years? This is a job and he's your partner for the duration of it, don't get involved. She warned herself and mused that she never listened to anyone else's warnings, why would she listen to her own?

She got into the driver's seat and waited for Michael to get in. She noticed he stumbled on the way in and fought back a laugh.

Michael swore as his foot caught on the runner of her jeep. Falling down and making a complete ass of himself was not exactly what he had in mind. He was still working towards the cool bounty hunter persona he displayed for the general public.

Maria drove with the radio loud and her attention on trying to remember the way to the office without having to ask for directions. She parked on the street in front of the office and gave herself a figurative pat on the back for not getting lost. She cut the engine and looked at her passenger.

"You took the long way," he grinned and jumped out of the jeep before she could respond.

She carefully removed the faceplate to the stereo, grabbed her backpack and followed her new partner to a white pick-up truck a few spaces in front of them. Maria got in the passenger side and tucked her backpack underneath her legs on the floor.

Michael took a deep breath before getting in the cab of the truck. "So, where do you think we should start?"

"You tell me Guerin," she shrugged and felt the trickle of sweat run in-between her breasts. "This is your town and you know little Miss Liz Parker, right?"

Michael started the engine and didn't turn down either the radio or the air-conditioner. Maria savored them both. She stretched her legs out as far as she could and looked at her chauffeur. The strong jaw line, the full lips and cocky attitude. Exactly what she didn't need in her life right now. What she needed was to find Liz Parker and move on.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

Michael reached for the volume dial on the radio and reluctantly turned it down as he cruised expertly through overly familiar streets. "Okay, my suggestion is we check out the bus station and train terminal."

"Sounds like a good idea, she wouldn't fly here and she didn't have a car in Vegas," Maria nodded slipping back into bad ass bounty hunter mode. "And I can almost bet money on the fact that she will come here."

"But you don't know for sure."

"No one knows anything for sure," she smiled and pulled the front of her tank shirt away from her skin trying to let some of the cool air in. She leaned down and away from Michael so the vent was directed straight at her chest. "Is it always this freaking hot here?"

Michael grinned and tried to catch a glimpse of what she was baring to the vent, he was unsuccessful. "We have kind of a heat wave going on right now, usually its not so bad."

"A heat wave," she sighed and leaned back against the vinyl seat feeling somewhat cooler. "Of course it's a heat wave."

"Should break in a few days."

"I doubt I'll be here that long," she murmured and watched the town as they drove by.

"So," Michael felt like he should talk but he didn't know what to say. The words he usually used with women would sound stupid to this one. Hell, they usually sounded stupid to himself as well, but the chicks liked them. "Did you get any information from Nancy Parker?"

Maria nodded. "Probably more than she thought. She's been in contact with her daughter; I know that for a fact because she knew who I was. So sometime in the last few days she's talked to Liz which indicates she knows where she's at."

"So, if Nancy knows who you are wouldn't she tell Liz to stay away from Roswell?"

Maria tilted her head to one side before slamming her open palm against the dashboard. "Fuck!"

Michael cringed. "Sorry."

"Not your fault, my fault." Maria shook her head and closed her eyes. "Fuck."

Michael was silent, a rare thing for him, and drove to the bus station. He got out of the truck and waited a beat before making sure Maria DeLuca was following him. They walked side by side into the station, an oppressive gray building where exhaust fumes seemed to hover.

Maria followed Michael inside the building and to the information booth. Michael leaned on the counter and tilted his sunglasses upwards, he licked his lips as the woman behind the counter looked up at him and smiled.

"Hi," he looked at her nametag, "Misty. I was wondering if you could help me out?"

Misty was a little bit older than Michael and a little overweight and a little out of fashion. She giggled nervously.

"Great," Michael laid on the charm and rested both elbows on the counter. "I was wondering if you have the information about passengers coming into Roswell."

"Oh, well," Misty the counter-clerk looked around nervously. "That's not for the public. Confidential, you know."

"Right, I know, but this is really important here for us." Michael motioned to Maria who stepped up closer to him and smiled at Misty.

Misty took in the sight of Maria and her demeanor changed from giddy to sullen. "Sorry."

"Listen Misty," Michael grinned, "this is my cousin and she's trying to find her girlfriend. She was supposed to be here in town yesterday and we can't find her. Could you just tell us if she was or is on a passenger list? My cousin's getting a little worried." He turned to face Maria and winked.

"Her girl…" Misty's eyes widened and she nodded. "Right. Well, I guess I could look for you, what her girlfriend's name?"

"Elizabeth Parker." Michael smiled.

"Elizabeth Parker," Misty said the name as she tapped on the computer keyboard in front of her. "I have an E. Parker and a Beth Parker and Parker Elizabeth."

"Parker Elizabeth," Michael and Maria said at the same time.

"Parker Elizabeth arrived in Roswell about three hours ago," Misty smiled obviously happy to help with the reunion of girlfriends. "So, you probably just missed her."

"Thanks doll," Michael winked at her and walked away from the counter with Maria back at his side. "So she is here."

"My girlfriend?" Maria rolled her eyes behind dark glasses. "I can't believe you told her I was a lesbian."

"You saw the way she looked at me, she wouldn't have told us if she thought we were an item." Michael held the door open for her.

"An item?" Maria laughed after being assaulted by the heat again. "That's good." She slowed her pace down to walk in back of him and admired the way his ass filled his jeans.

"Quit staring at my ass DeLuca," Michael called back to her as he reached the truck.

Maria laughed and got in the passenger side. "So, she is here. Maybe Nancy didn't have a way to warn her not to come."

"Maybe," Michael gunned the truck out of the parking lot. "So, now what?"

"Are you new at this?" Maria asked trying to keep the accusation out of her voice.

"No, but I've never worked with anyone before besides Isabel. And it seems like you have a serious hard-on for Liz, so I'm playing nice. I'm getting along well with others." He stole a glance at her.

Maria smiled. "Now, we stake out the Parker house and see if little Lizzie comes home again. But first, we have to stop for some water."

* * *

One hour and twenty minutes.

Michael Guerin and Maria DeLuca had sitting down the street from Nancy Parker's house for one hour and twenty minutes and had nothing to show for it. The temperature had climbed somewhere past one hundred and inside the cab of the truck, it felt like seven hundred to Maria.

Her shirt was pulled up just barely covering her breasts, her abdomen exposed, slick with sweat. The shirt was soaked through and she wondered how'd she'd score in a wet T-shirt contest. She unbuttoned the button on her shorts and folded down the waist; anything to get just a little cooler. Her socks and boots had been discarded after about fifteen minutes of sitting in the sweltering heat.

Michael sat in his jeans and T-shirt. He ditched the black one in favor of a white one that was behind his seat. The white shirt was almost transparent.

"Can a person actually cook?" Maria asked and turned her head lazily towards her new partner.

"I think so," he looked slowly to her, taking in the way the shirt was plastered to her breasts, the way her nipples were almost visible beneath the fabric. He swore he would have given his eyeteeth for her to be wearing a white shirt.

Maria knew he was staring at her breasts from behind the dark glasses and although she hated to admit it, it turned her on. Against her better judgement, she raised her arms up in a fake stretch knowing the semi-circle bottoms of her breasts just might become exposed. She didn't have a clue as to why she was flirting when she knew it would be disastrous.

Michael watched as she stretched and felt his arousal surge with the brief glimpse of breast flesh. How he was ever going to be able to work side by side with her was beyond him.

He parted his lips and licked them, about ready to make some inane comment about heat on flesh when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.
Something unexpected.

Someone unexpected.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

"What the hell is he doing here?" Michael watched his friend Max Evans get out of his shiny silver car and start walking towards Nancy Parker's house. Without thinking, he was out of the truck, Maria was on his heels trying to pull down her shirt and button her shorts on the way.

"Michael," Max stopped in mid step when Michael Guerin appeared in front of him. "Hi."

Michael narrowed his eyes and took Max by the arm leading him back towards the truck. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I was…" Max looked back and forth between his friend and the cute blond stranger next to him and smiled. "Who are you?"

"Never mind her, what the hell are you doing going to the Parker's?" Michael ignored the glare he knew he was getting from Maria.

"Hi," Maria elbowed Michael out of the way and extended her hand towards the dark-haired stranger with a great smile in front of her. Great smile? I wonder when I got so desperate. She again decided it was the heat and then wondered what the hell she looked like after sitting in a sweltering truck for more than an hour with an intensely sexy man next to her. "Maria DeLuca, please excuse the excess sweat but this town is entirely too hot."

In more ways than one.

The man shook her hand, "Max Evans, nice to meet you."

"Yeah, yeah," Michael rolled his eyes. "So Max, what the hell are you doing here?"

"It kind of bothered me that you were after Liz…I just wanted to stop by and see how her mom is doing."

"Have you heard from Liz?" Michael accused.

"I haven't heard from Liz in eight years," Max spat back with more emotion than he should have. "Nancy Parker was always nice and I'm sure she's been through a lot lately and I just wanted to see how she was. You know, considering my best friend is going to turn her daughter in."

"She's a criminal," Maria interjected as a realization hit her like a bullet train. "Evans? You and Isabel?"

"She's my sister," Max tilted his head to the left side. "You know Iz?"

"Shit," Michael sighed. "Maria is a bond enforcement agent and is also trying to catch your girlfriend."

"Another bad ass bounty hunter, huh?" Max said with something close to an amused look on his face. He glanced at Michael. "And she's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever, just do me a favor? Stay away from the Parker's or I'm going to start suspecting something might be going on," Michael pursed his lips and felt sweat trickle down his back.

"I'm sorry Michael, did you just become my keeper?"

"No, I've had that job for a long time already. Just go home Maxwell, I'll call you later and we'll meet for a beer tonight, okay?"

"Will you be joining us, Maria?" Max asked ignoring Michael completely and centering all of his attention on Maria.

"No, she won't. We're not friends and we won't go have a beer and talk about work," he smiled at Maria while speaking. "Right?"

"Actually, a beer later on sounds fantastic." Maria smiled back at him before facing Max. "Thank you."

Michael shook his head and looked at the ground. He had been pretty sure before that this Maria DeLuca was going to be a pain in his ass, now he was positive. "Go home Max. I--" he glanced at Maria, "Excuse me, we will meet you around six at the usual place. Unless of course we zero in on your girlfriend, then we might be a few minutes late."

"Great," Max smiled in Maria's direction. "I'll be looking forward to it." He started walking back across the street to his car and looked over his shoulder once before getting in.

"He's a friend of yours?" Maria asked after they got back in the truck. "That's hard to believe."

"Why is that so hard to believe?"

"He just seems so…Normal," Maria shrugged and folded her shirt back up under her breasts. She caught a glance at her chest and figured she might do pretty well in a wet T-shirt competition.

"He is normal, too normal." Michael turned on the bench seat to face her. He licked his lips taking in every inch of her. He knew he could turn on the a/c for a few minutes to cool them down, but seeing her sweaty with her shirt soaked against her skin, he'd suffer with the heat. "That's why I think he's hiding something."

"You don't believe he'd just show up to check on Nancy?" Maria knew Michael was looking at her and she liked it. She swiveled on the seat and sat cross-legged, her back against the door.

He shrugged, "He might. You never really know with Max. Well, I guess you'll see what I mean tonight."

Tonight. Maria nodded and wondered what in the hell had possessed her to tag along for a beer. Underneath the heat of a reckless desire, she didn't want to get involved. A night with Michael Guerin would be good, but that was it, she didn't have room in her life for a man. Especially not a man who lived in hell and was entirely too much like her.

* * *

Four hours and thirty-five minutes.

Maria gave up caring about Liz Parker around the three-hour mark. It was a lesson in futility as far as she was concerned. It was obvious that Liz Parker wasn't going to just walk down the street and into her mother's house. Nancy hadn't been seen all day except when she stepped on the porch to retrieve her mail.

"I can't take it anymore Guerin," She sat up straight after pulling away from the vinyl slowly. "I think I might be actually boiling. I mean, my skin is burnt from the windows and you've seen more of me that I ever thought imaginable." She glanced to her barely covered breasts.

Somewhere in the time that had passed, she managed to rip the front of her tank shirt open down the middle. The thin wet fabric hugged her nipples, but left most of her breasts exposed. She had fumed that it was turning her on the way Michael had watched her earlier, now she just didn't care.

Michael looked at her with heavy eyes. He'd ditched the sunglasses when they kept sliding off his nose. His eyes lingered on the milky flesh of her breasts and the slight discoloration of the contour of her aureole. If the heat wouldn't have melted the irrational part of his brain, he would have made a move.

He saw in his mind's eye what he wanted to do; but he didn't have the energy. He wanted to lean across the bench seat and pull her shirt open totally exposing what he had already seen part of. He wanted to suck the salty sweat off of her nipples until she begged him for more.

"Quit staring at my tits," she smiled.

"I can't help it," he shrugged. "They are right there." He pointed.

"Let's call it a day, we can shower and then figure out what to do next."

"Together?"

"Guerin, let me explain something to you," she pointed down to her chest. "What you see right now is all you're ever going to see. If it wasn't nine hundred degrees in this oven you call a truck, you would have never seen this much."

"Ouch," he started the truck and turned the radio up. He waited a few minutes with the truck running until he felt the first hint of cool air coming out of the vents. He turned the a/c up and watched Maria's chest. He saw her nipples poke through the material of her shirt and grinned. She wanted him, he was sure of that.

Maria closed her eyes and savored every second of the cool air and loud music. When she opened her eyes they were parked in the small dusty lot outside of the bail bonds office. She grabbed her boots and backpack and was out of the truck before Michael even turned off the engine.

"Where should I meet you and Max?" She asked walking around to the driver's side.

"Where are you staying?"

Maria raised one eyebrow at him, "The Martian Inn."

"Two blocks east, a little dive of a bar called Little Green Bar. You can't miss the green neon in the window."

"Little Green Bar," she nodded and walked to her jeep. "See you there."

Michael watched her get in the jeep and peel out of the parking lot. He looked towards the office and saw Isabel at the door watching him. He cut the engine and got out walking slowly towards his partner.

"You look like shit," she smiled and held the door open for him.

"Thanks," he smirked sarcastically. "It's freaking hot out there."

"So I noticed. Anything?"

"Liz arrived in Roswell this morning by bus, we've been at her moms all day and there's been no sign of her."

"So…?" She prompted.

"So I'm going home and taking a shower then I'm meeting Maria and your brother for a drink. Okay?"

Isabel nodded and looked like she wanted to say something more, but didn't.

"Oh, speaking of your brother," Michael turned towards her and began walking back towards the door. "Any idea why he felt the need to go and check on Nancy Parker today?"

* * *

Chapter Fourteen


A cold beer sounded good to Maria DeLuca. A lot of cold beer sounded even better. She trudged up the steps to her hotel room; exhaustion from the heat and sexual frustration over Michael Guerin were weighing her down. When she stepped into her room she was glad she had left the a/c running while she was gone. The coolness of the room was invigorating.

She pulled her ripped shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor making a mental note to get reimbursed for two ripped shirts during the hunt for Liz Parker.

She took her boots, socks and shorts off and laid down completely nude on the cool polyester blend bedspread and damned herself. Damned herself for slipping up with Liz Parker and double damned herself for the flirtation with her temporary partner.

Now off for cocktails with said partner and his friend. His friend with the great smile and suspicious actions. She dragged herself off the bed and to the bathroom for a shower; she hoped the shower would not only wash away the sweat, but any desire for Michael Guerin as well.

* * *
Michael arrived at Little Green Bar as Max Evans pulled into the parking lot. After a fast conversation with Isabel and an even faster shower, he'd dressed in jeans and a dry white T-shirt. It was too tight for him, but Isabel always said it gave off the illusion of him looking a lot better than he really did. He took that as a compliment. His hair was still damp as the two friends walked side by side into their favorite watering hole.

"So, where's Maria?" Max asked once they had sat in a booth, a change of scenery from their normal bar stools.

Michael narrowed his eyes and noticed Max looked a lot better than he normally did. His hair wasn't flat and flyaway, but gelled or moussed or something. He wasn't dressed like the nerdy scholar Michael had become accustomed to either. He was actually dressed similar to Michael in jeans and a T-shirt.

"I'm sure she'll be here," Michael said slowly and considered the fact that Max might be wanting to make a move on the woman Michael was already falling for. Falling in lust, that is.

"She is here," Maria stood at the end of the table and debated who to sit next to. Michael, who she wanted to jump, or Max, the stranger with the great smile? She sat next to Max.

Maria DeLuca cleaned up nice. A pair of ecru linen shorts and a white button-down short sleeved shirt with sandals. Michael actually tried to see if she was wearing a bra or not. He decided if she wasn't, he was going to physically break the air conditioner in the bar.

"So, you're like him?" Max smiled at her.

"She's not like me," Michael shook his head.

"I'm not like him," Maria pointed across the table.

"Oh God," Max rolled his eyes. "Now there's two of you? I meant, so you're a bounty hunter too, huh? You seem too…What's the word I'm looking for?"

"With ovaries?" Maria supplied and earned one of those great smiles.

"No, more like petite." Max laughed. "I guess I just picture a female bounty hunter as being more…Not like you." He winked as he saved himself from something uncomfortable.

The waitress came and took their orders before Maria responded. "Isn't your sister one?"

"Iz?" Max laughed along with Michael. "Isabel is more of the office type. Right?" He cast his eyes across the table to Michael who looked at him with an unreadable face.

"She can hold her own," Michael defended his partner. "We've gone out and brought people in together before, she'd probably a lot stronger than you give her credit for, Max."

Max shrugged and turned his attention back to Maria. "So, how did you become a bounty hunter?"

"My uncle was one," Maria said before she could stop herself. Sharing with others was too close to playing well with others. "He got me into it."

"DeLuca?" Michael asked, his eyes wide.

"Guerin?" Maria bugged her eyes out at him and waited.

"Chuck DeLuca, he was your uncle." Michael stated rather than asked. "Man, I didn't even put that together."

"You knew Chuck?" Maria asked, the words catching in her throat.

"Not personally, just by reputation." Michael waited for the waitress to set down their drinks before continuing. "He was the best bounty hunter on the West Coast from what I've heard about him."

"You heard correctly, he was the best."

"What happened to him?" Max's dark eyes were full of concern as his hand touched her arm.

"He was killed in a convenience store hold-up," Maria took a sip of her beer. "A few years ago."

"I'm sorry," Max squeezed her arm reassuringly.

Maria smiled at him and nodded. Something was off with Max Evans, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. "Thank you."

"You really did learn from the best didn't you?" Michael raised his eyebrows, a look of awe on his face.

"Yeah, I did."

"I took a class," Michael shook his head. "Well, that and I watched a hell of a lot of re-runs of Renegade ."

Maria grinned and bit her bottom lip as she saw something new take over the cocky attitude of Michael Guerin, respect.

"That's pretty cool," Max nodded. "So how do you like Roswell?"

She looked at him confused, then her eyes grew wide. "Roswell, right, you mean one of the circles of hell. I hate it here, actually."

"I told her it was a heat wave," Michael explained. He was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable sitting across from the other two. Jealousy sprang up out of nowhere towards Max and he didn't like it.

"Yeah, it is hot out there," Max nodded.

"Yeah, I probably lost about eleven pounds of sweat sitting in that truck all day." Maria smiled and thought about the way that Michael's wet T-shirt had hugged his abs. The hunger in his eyes when he stared at her breasts. She looked across the table at him and wondered if he was getting as hot as she was. The ache between her legs was turning into a fire.

"Well, you looked great." Max smiled pulling Maria out of her daydreams.

"Thanks, so Max. What were doing at the Parker's?" Maria felt herself slip right back into work mode knowing it work make Chuck proud. She thought she'd heard a flopping sound a few seconds ago and realized it was Chuck turning over in his grave at her behavior. She was a bounty hunter and she had a job to do.

"Just what I said earlier, I was just checking on Nancy." Max nodded and took a drink from his bottle, lowering his head as he did.

"Max, cut the bullshit and tell me what the fuck's going on." Michael's words were cool.

"No bullshit, Michael." Max shook his head.

"So you haven't heard from Liz, at all?"

"I haven't heard from or seen Liz since her and her dad left Roswell," Max answered a little vehemently that was needed. "Get off it, okay?"

"It's my job," Michael glanced at Maria, "It's our job."

"I don't know anything, okay?" Max finished his beer with one more long swallow. "But from what you remember of Liz, do you really think she's the type to steal money?"

Michael shrugged. "People change, Maxwell. People change."

"Yeah, they do." Max responded then touched Maria's arm. "I can't stay, not that the company wasn't delightful, but I have some homework to do tonight, still. Will you excuse me?"

Maria stood up and let Max out of the booth. "Nice to meet you Max."

He took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing her knuckle. "Likewise, maybe you would care to accompany me to dinner tomorrow night? I could show you that Roswell is not actually one of the circles of hell."

Maria smiled and nodded. "Sure, Max, that'd be great." She reached into her backpack and got out a business card. "Here's my cell number."

Max smiled as he tucked the card into his back pocket. "Tomorrow," he smiled at her then turned to Michael. "Michael."

Michael watched in shock as Max walked away. "What are you doing?" He accused when Maria sat back down. "What the hell was that about?"

"Your friend is hiding something," Maria shrugged.

"So you're going to go on a date with him?" he asked incredulously.

"It's called working, Guerin," she rolled her eyes and was filled with the satisfaction of hearing jealousy in his voice.

"Whatever," Michael looked around for their waitress and motioned for another beer.

"You sound a little jealous there, Guerin."

Michael didn't answer; he only looked at her. He licked his lips and smiled.

Maria felt the heat rise through her. She wanted him so bad she could almost taste him. She felt her bare breasts press against the cool cotton of the button-down shirt and wondered if she should have worn a bra. It was just so hot…

"I'm not jealous," he said as the waitress delivered two fresh beers and picked up the empty bottles. "Why would I be jealous?"

Maria shrugged and wondered if she had been reading him wrong. All of the lascivious behavior she thought she had picked up on him before could have been nothing at all. The staring at her breasts? What sane man wouldn't stare at almost bare breasts?

"Okay," she pushed the bottle away. "I think I'm just going to go back to my hotel, I'm tired and pissed off and I think I need a good nights sleep."

"For your date?" He downed the rest of the bottle while pulling money out of his wallet. "What time shall I meet you in the morning?"

"I can come to the office around seven? Eight?" Maria noticed a change in his demeanor that told her he was jealous. Knowing that, it sent a different kind of spark through her.

"Eight is good," he tossed the money on the table. "I'm going home." He stood and waited to see if Maria was going to leave with him. He smiled when he saw her rise. He followed her out of the bar and saw her jeep backed in next to his truck.

"So," she leaned against the metal of the truck's driver's side door.

"So what?" He shrugged and licked his suddenly very dry lips.

"We cool?"

"Yeah DeLuca, we're cool." He smiled and shook his head. "You sure you're going out with Max for work reasons?"

"Yeah Guerin, I'm sure," she stepped closer to him, their bodies inches apart. She looked up at him. "Just work. Are you sure you're not jealous?"

Michael looked down into her eyes and then leaned forward. He pushed her body against his truck, his groin grinding into hers. His hands reaching under the cotton shirt to touch what he had been thinking about since they were in the Crashdown. His mouth fell onto hers, his tongue prying inside.

Maria reached around him and ran one hand through his hair, the other down his back. She felt his hands underneath her shirt, cupping her breasts, then rolling her nipples between his forefinger and thumb. She could feel his erection crushing into her, making her pelvis buck against him. Wanting him.

She felt one of his hands slide down the front of her, his fingers edging their way down underneath the waist of her shorts. She sucked in her stomach to allow him to enter her shorts.

With a gasp, she felt his fingers touch her wetness. She pushed down on his hand while devouring his mouth with hers.

He pulled his hand out of her shorts and pushed her shirt up over her breasts exposing them to himself and anyone else who happened by. He lowered his head away from hers and attached his lips to one rosy pert nipple. She clasped his head with her hands and moaned.

Michael stopped almost as fast as he had started. He faced her, excited to see her flushed and smirked. "No DeLuca, I'm not jealous."

Maria caught her breath, pulled down her shirt and smiled before walking past him and getting into her jeep.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen


The smile on her face was anything but real. That smile held more contempt and disdain than anything else did on the planet. The disdain and contempt was focused solely on one person; herself. As she smiled back to Michael before pulling out of the parking lot, she had a vision of slamming her head into the windshield. Maybe that, she thought, might knock some freaking sense into her.

She turned the radio up and tried to ignore the wetness between her legs and the lingering touch of Michael Guerin.

Did I actually just get felt up in the parking lot of something as stupidly named as 'Little Green Bar'? Did I just let someone I barely know and not all that sure I actually like that much stick his hand in my pants?

She shook her head and ignored the amber changing to red light overhead and ran one hand over her shirt, over her breast, to see if the residual effects of Michael Guerin had gone away. Not yet. Damning herself, she pulled into the parking lot of her hotel leaving a cloud of dust and rocks in her wake. She got out of the jeep and charged up the steps to her room.

The door was barely closed before she leaned against it and slid down to the floor. Her eyes were damp with unwanted tears. She wiped at the wetness and laughed at her foolishness.

"You are acting like a high school girl," she shook her head. "A stupid girl who just let the star quarterback stick his hand down her pants and then regrets it minutes later." Her smile became real as the tears evaporated. "You are all grown up and can do whatever you want. Mr. Guerin has nice hands and nice mouth. Top that off with a nice ass and maybe, just maybe, me and Mr. G. might have ourselves one hell of wild one-nighter before I either leave this hellish town or melt." Maybe, but on my terms.

She stood up feeling somewhat better about her decision to allow Michael to touch her and stripped off her clothes. The wet ache between her legs wasn't budging and every little thought about Michael made it worse.

She lay down on the bed and took a few deep breaths. Her hands resting on her bare thighs with a desire and loneliness she had grown accustomed to.

* * *

Michael Guerin was hard.

He sat in his truck for several minutes after watching Maria DeLuca pull out of the parking lot trying to figure out what in the hell had gotten into him. Fondling strange women in parking lots was not something he generally did. It wasn't something he had ever done before and honestly didn't think he ever would do again. There was just something about her…

There was something about this bad ass bounty hunter that was making him lose control. Something animal in him had been called and the fact that she didn't scream, run away or shoot him proved to him that this attraction was very much mutual.

The taste of her breast in his mouth, the saltiness of her nipple being rolled beneath his tongue.

He shook his head in amazement. He couldn't believe that she had let him act out some type of fantasy on her right out in the open. Right out where anyone could see. He smiled to himself thinking about the way she had sucked in her stomach to allow his hand to travel down into her shorts.

Was she almost completely shaved down there?

He remembered a little coarseness of hair before his fingers slid into a velvety wetness. He had teased her and as he realized it, his self-confidence was over brimming. Not that he usually didn't have an over-indulgence of self-confidence, Isabel would be the first to agree with him on that point, but tonight with Maria DeLuca he felt like…He couldn't quite put his finger on it. Something Shakespearean, like, Taming of the Shrew.

He shook his head and started the truck welcoming the loud music to take his mind away from an unfathomable experience in a parking lot with a woman he was uncontrollably drawn to.

* * *

Maria pulled the cool sheets around her body and pushed all thoughts of Michael Guerin from her head. There was still only one reason she was in Roswell.

Liz Parker.

Liz Parker was the reason she was staying in hell and being molested by complete strangers. Liz Parker was the reason she seemed to have lost some of the self-confidence she thrived on. Liz Parker was the one who had made Maria DeLuca remember a few things about human nature only to have it thrown back in her face.

Before sleep took over her body, Maria thought briefly about the date she had made with Max Evans for the following night. She knew he was hiding something and was determined to do whatever it takes to make sure he told her all of his secrets.

She drifted off to a restless sleep as the hum of the air conditioner reminded her she was still indeed in hell.

* * *
Maria woke up early, too early, the following morning. After staying in bed until the sun was vibrant through the curtains, she showered and dressed for a day of working side by side with Michael Guerin. Wearing khaki shorts, boots and white tank shirt with a bra she was ready to start the day.

A few minutes before eight, Maria DeLuca walked into the bail bonding office and was greeted by Isabel and a cup of coffee. She declined the coffee and opted for a cold bottled water instead. At eight o'clock in the morning, the temperature was already close to ninety.

"So," Isabel taped her pen on the Teakwood desk. "Do you think you and Michael are going to be able to track down Liz?"

"I know I will and I guess Michael will tag along for the ride," Maria winked.

"He's good," Isabel leaned back in the chair. "Michael is, I mean."

"I'm sure he is," Maria nodded and narrowed her eyes not exactly sure where the conversation was going.

"No, he really is good. His record isn't as impressive as yours, but he's still good."

Maria nodded again and waited for elaboration.

"He called me last night and told me who your uncle was," Isabel admitted. "Chuck DeLuca was a legend and I'm very sorry for your loss." Maria acknowledged her sympathy with a nod. "The reason I'm telling you Michael is good is because it's the truth. If he makes mistakes, it's because he's trying too hard to impress you. I just don't want to see him make a complete ass out of himself and screw everything up."

Maria grinned and took a big drink of water with the hopes some of the coolness would stay in her system. "I'm not my uncle, no one needs to impress me."

"We're talking about Michael," Isabel smiled back at her. "Sometimes he doesn't think before he reacts."

No shit, something else we have in common. Maria nodded and wondered if her head was going to fall off from all the nodding.

"Listen, I want Liz Parker. I don't care what you two have to do to get her," Isabel leaned forward with her elbows resting on the desk.

"We'll get her, Iz." Michael's voice came from the doorway. Tight jeans and an even tighter black T-shirt was the attire for the day. He strode towards the two women with his sunglasses on feeling every bit the part of bad ass bounty hunter. At least until he promptly tripped on the carpet and barely caught his balance on the corner of the desk.

"See what I mean?" Isabel grinned at Maria before they laughed together at Michael's expense.

* * *
Chapter Sixteen

Michael regained his composure after the nearly fatal image-fall and smiled at the two still laughing women. "Okay, get it out of your systems." He felt the heat rising up his neck with the embarrassment he was trying to hide.

"So Guerin," Maria raised her eyebrows at him and waited until he faced her behind those dark glasses to continue. "Did you have a nice trip?"

Isabel Evans laughed so hard she was almost gagging. "Oh God!"

Michael sighed and remembered how smooth Maria's skin was to calm him down. She may be playing the part of smart-ass, but he thought he had her number.

"So, while the little girl-chatter has been going on," he took off his sunglasses and faced Maria again, "did you tell Isabel about her brother?"

Maria narrowed her eyes and glared at him, not at all surprised by Isabel's sudden silence.

"I guess not," Michael smirked.

"What about my brother?" The defensiveness in Isabel's voice was overbearing.

"DeLuca here has a date with him tonight," Michael grinned as he felt the tension thicken around him.

"You're going on a date with Max?" Isabel asked, her eyes wide, before she laughed out loud again. "Oh God, anymore of this and I might pee in my pants!"

Maria didn't laugh along with her this time, she felt the edge of a ripple of anger just below the surface and the person to blame was standing beside her. She shook her head slightly at him but knew the effort was futile.

"She thinks he's hiding something." Michael added when Isabel's laughter quieted.

"Max? You think Max is hiding something?" Isabel's tone changed back from jovial to defensive.

"I just think that Max knows something about Liz Parker," Maria explained and sat up straighter in her chair.

"Michael?" Isabel bypassed Maria and faced her friend. "Do you feel the same way?"

He shrugged and cocked his head to one side. "As long as I've known Max, he really sucks at being all stealthy, right? You know that as well as I do. Do I think Max knows something about Liz Parker? I wouldn't have had he not shown up at her mom's house yesterday."

"You seriously think he's heard from her?" Isabel kept her eyes trained on Michael.

He shrugged again wondering how the focus of the intended target, Maria, had shifted from her to him. "I don't know; but he's definitely being… Squirrelly. I'm sure DeLuca can weasel some information out of him."

Isabel faced the woman across the desk from her and took her in as if seeing her for the first time. Brilliant green eyes, pouty lips, gorgeous natural blond hair and a body that wouldn't stop. Strong mentally and physically. She envisioned her pop-psychology, over-analyzing brother getting chewed up and spit out.

"What are you going to do with Max?" Isabel narrowed her eyes at Maria.

Maria was taken aback by the question. Crimson flowered over her chest wondering if Michael had told her about their slight indiscretion in the parking lot the night before. "Try to get any information out of him I can," she glanced up at Michael. "Anyway that I have to."

"Good," Isabel smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."

Michael's jaw dropped.

"Don't look so surprised Michael," Isabel rolled her eyes at him. "If my dear brother is hiding something, then so help me God, you two better figure it out and fast. I told you, I want Liz Parker."

"You really got a hard-on for Liz," Michael murmured.

"If you must put it in such a garish way, then yes, I do have a hard-on for her." Isabel tilted back in her chair and folded her arms over her breasts. "Liz Parker is important to us Michael. We're still new, still getting our feet wet. Liz is high profile and high dollar. We're working with the niece of the legendary Chuck DeLuca. This is our chance to make a real name for ourselves."

The corner's of Michael's mouth turned upwards. Leave it to Isabel to throw her brother to the wolves for business. Not actually wolves, but one wolf in Maria clothing.

"You ready?" He asked Maria and took a step backward to allow her room to stand.

"Find her," Isabel stood as well. "Find that little Liz Parker and we can all go home happy."

Maria smiled over her shoulder at a woman she would want to call a friend if she had the time or correct locale. She shuddered when she felt Michael place his hand on her back to lead her from the office. She shook it off and heard a sound from him; somewhere between a laugh and a groan.

"Truck?" He asked as they walked out into the sun and stood in front of their two vehicles parked side by side.

Maria looked back and forth between her non-air-conditioned jeep and the air-conditioned truck. "Truck."

They got inside and she immediately felt the hot vinyl stick to the back of her thighs. She raised her pelvis and lowered herself slowly trying to absorb the heat in the most gingerly way possible.

"A little too hot for you, DeLuca?" Michael asked with a sideways smirk as he started the truck.

Maria caught the double entendre and chose to ignore it. She switched the a/c vents to her direction and fought against hope to keep her eyes off the T-shirt that seemed to sculpt his chest. The sleeves riding just a little high on his arms, just high enough to give her complete viewing pleasure of his biceps.

"I guess we should stake out Ms. Parker's again?" Michael asked as he pulled out of the parking lot. Hopeful she would say yes and thankful she had worn a white shirt.

"No, I don't think she'll go there. I mean if she isn't already inside that is." Maria couldn't even imagine having another sweat-fest in the truck again.

"So then…" Michael gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. He felt he was acting like someone who just started and was being trained. He was a bounty hunter, and a damn good one, he didn't need this little woman to tell him his job. He knew his job; he was just acting like a lovesick schoolboy because he wanted back in her pants. "So then we should start with all the area hotels." He didn't ask, he stated.

Maria smiled and nodded. Exactly what she had in mind. Little Liz Parker had made it to Roswell via bus yesterday and had disappeared into the sand as far as she knew.

"I wonder if she looks the same…" Michael trailed off while changing the radio station away from chatty morning shows.

"I know what she looks like," Maria piped up. "We've been face to face."

"Still long brown hair, kind of mousy?"

"Mousy?" Maria repeated with a smile. "Yeah, kind of mousy. Long dark hair? Nope. Bad dye job and cut. Her hair's choppy, around shoulder length unless she got it fixed from when I saw her in Vegas. It's a really light brown now, almost blond."

"As blond as you?"

Maria shook her head. "Nope, but I'm a real blond."

"Hmm…" Michael nodded, the words so poised and ready to go, he couldn't stop himself. "I couldn't really tell by touch."

Maria felt herself blush and knew that it had only been a matter to time before Michael brought up the night before. She decided not to dignify him with a response. It was just too fucking early in the morning for that.

"Her hair is more of a kind of redish-blondish-browninsh. Not a great job, she could have changed it again by now." Maria stated and looked out her window.

Michael grinned as she easily maneuvered out of his statement. Not a bad non-answer for now, it was still pretty early in the morning and they had all day together. Well, until her date with Max Evans. Michael didn't like the idea of her going out with Max, something foreign was running through his senses and he didn't quite understand it. He wouldn't dare admit he might be jealous.

"Let's start here," Michael pulled into the parking lot of motel and cut the engine outside of the office. He licked his bottom lip and looked at his passenger. "About last night…"

Maria drew in a deep breath. "Last night, the beer was c