Stella, Get Your Man

the long version

"JUST ONCE I'D LIKE TO HAVE A PLAN GO MY WAY. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?" Smart-mouthed P.I. Stella Valocchi is finally in business, with the office and the aggravating employee -- former fiance Jake Carpenter -- to prove it. And when a client with a sob story hires them to find her brother, success is one missing man away -- until the search becomes hazardous to Stella's life. Threats, gunshots and car chases won't put her off the case. Neither will Jake's insistence that they be full partners -- and maybe more. But the closer Stella is to getting her man, the more the case looks like a carefully set trap -- and she's the bait....