All familiar characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine.
Once Ranger put me back on my feet from a hug that took me clear off the ground, he tilted my chin up with one rough fingertip so I'd have to face the music - and the Ranger - without flinching or looking away.
"One mistake, Babe, is all that's needed to make you not here anymore."
I felt like crap all over again. Who am I kidding? I haven't stopped feeling like shit since I ran into this nightmare.
"I know," I told him.
"We've talked about this," he reminded me. "And do you remember what I said?"
"Yes."
It's impossible to forget, considering the amount of love and fear he let me see in his eyes when he'd been speaking.
"And ...?" He prompted.
"That protecting myself at all times is critical because it's not just my life on the line, but yours too if I die. I'm sorry. I had every intention of waiting for you, but ..."
I let my explanation trail off. There is no excuse for almost getting killed ... again. It was like I was caught between two death sentences ... my own potentially-immediate meeting with my maker or a slow death from knowing I could've saved a child and didn't because I was busy waiting for backup.
My childhood wasn't the greatest all the time, but on days like these, I wish like hell I could go back in time to when the biggest decision I had to make was which was the biggest cookie I could shove in my face before Valerie or my mom caught me.
"You won't do that ever again?" Ranger pushed.
What can I say to that? 'No ... of course I'll stand idly by and watch a kid be murdered.' I'd rather dig out all my organs with a fork missing its two middle tines than hurt Ranger, but I can't promise what he wants to hear unless I have all of my fingers crossed, and maybe some of his too.
"I won't purposely put myself in danger if I can help it," I said after a beat. "Can that be enough? Believe me, the life I now have with you ... I'm not about to give up without a fight. But you saw her, Ranger, I couldn't let that little girl get shot. I know I broke one of your cardinal rules, especially since you think my life is more valuable than just about anybody's except Julie's, but I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if that little bitty girl had been hurt or God forbid ... killed while I stood there watching it happen."
"I know. I'm proud of you, Babe. I'm still angry beyond all reason and comprehension that the stepfather could have killed the three of you, but the fact that you ran straight into a deadly situation without backup to save a child is the reason why I love you so much, it's an actual physical ache."
"Where's the pain located? Your head, neck, or am I pain in your behind again?"
"Now that I know you're safe, the ache has since changed locations."
Because I'm still plastered to the front of him, I can tell exactly which part of his big body is aching now. I'm not a fan of almost getting shot, cut, or blown, up, but one benefit that comes from a life-threatening event is the way Ranger reassures himself that I'm alright.
As soon as the smoke clears and the ink dries on any required police reports, the two of us spend a few hours in his big bed so he can show me how much he loves me ... using words, his body, or both at once. While we're there, he also proves all over again how much I need him in ways that extend beyond how cared for and appreciated he makes me feel in what I think of as our bedroom on seven.
I curled my arms around his waist and tried to get even closer to him. "Does this and that," I said, wiggling my hips a little and then going up on tiptoes so we'd be a better fit, "mean we're good? You being my boss and my Ranger blurs a few lines. Technically, I went against the Boss' orders, but you know why I had to."
"I do. And if I would've given Lester or Bobby this apprehension and they acted in the same manner you did, there would be an official reprimand as well as consequences for acting alone ..."
"But?" I interrupted, hoping there is one.
"But I would be extremely proud that they work for me because they didn't think twice about putting themselves between a child and an armed and violent asshole. As both your boss and your man, I commend you on your bravery since you knew that Cyril was heading home purposely to end his relationship with the girl's mother."
"End their relationship? That's an interesting way of saying that Dee Cyril was planning to go home and murder his wife."
And he would've likely killed her daughter, Bethany, first ... just out of spite. After I got a call from Cyril's sister, Diedra, who I'd become friendly with in order to get info on her monster of a brother's haunts away from home. I didn't want to endanger, upset, or scare, Bethany with an arrest at their house. 'Congratulations on avoiding that one, Stephanie,' I told myself, wishing I could've done something different, yet I still don't know what would've changed the outcome.
I had immediately called Ranger and then raced here, hoping to head the wife off. As it always happens in my case, things didn't go as planned. Dee's truck was here in the driveway, meaning he was already back home. And as if it had been prearranged ... his wife and step-daughter returned exactly two minutes after I parked in front of a neighbor's house one door down. Ranger's Porsche is fast, but he had still been five minutes out.
That was a pickle in itself, but things got even more complicated when six-year-old Bethany decided to race ahead of her mother into the house, a house that had a pissed-off psycho inside it who was feeling a tad homicidal. Cyril should be thanking God that he managed to snag a wife, not continually accuse her of cheating on him to justify abuse or premeditate a murder. Diedra had already turned on him and was ready to get him locked up again as quickly as possible. And that was before he broke into her place today to accuse her of helping Bethany's mom get away from him by way of some fictitious dude.
She didn't deny trying to help Reena Cyril escape with Bethany, but in her frantic sixty-second call, Diedra did deny that Reena would ever cheat. She'd be too scared to. That admittance had me scared enough to jump out of my car and scoop up Bethany before she could touch the front door, which opened just as Ranger barely pulled to a stop at the curb.
Needless to say, Ranger's gun was bigger than Cyril's and Dee was handcuffed and brought to the station by Tank, which left Bobby to get the Cyril females started on their much needed protective services ... provided by both the TPD and Rangeman. Ranger kept busy holding me until I stopped literally shaking in my boots. This is a pretty typical day in our lives, but I've noticed that each brush with death is getting harder to bounce back from. When you have something to lose, you start paying close attention to how many ways - and times - you could lose it all ... including your life.
"Blame Santos for the prettied-up description of a case," Ranger said, breaking into my thoughts. "His retaliation for having to do paperwork is to get creative with describing the scene or the crime."
"Really?"
He has many of them, but I hadn't been aware of this particular quirk of Lester's.
"Yes. A B&E was once labeled an 'Unrequested Visit'. An attempted murder during an apprehension was listed as an 'Overreaction On The Skip's Part'. A grand theft auto case involved a 'DWS' ..."
"Which is what?"
"Driving While Stupid … since the thief's wallet, which had two forms of ID inside it, was found in the Jag owner's driveway. All the police had to do to close the case was stage a 'Surprise Party' at the perp's place."
"What do you say that after we have some alone time together, you ask Gene or Vince to gather up the most memorable of Lester's reports and we and the guys head to Shorty's for pizza? Maybe after a beer, I can talk Les into a dramatic reading of them."
"You'd have a harder time trying to stop him than convincing him."
I smiled up at him. I smiled even more when Ranger's head started to descend. As he kissed me, a shiver ran through my body. That's a normal reaction from even the tiniest bit of Ranger's attention, but this one I knew was different. Maybe I helped save Bethany's life, or maybe I just acted without thinking yet again, but either way, it just hit me how badly this could've turned out and what I would be missing out on if it had.
Then and there, I made a mental promise to both myself and Ranger that once I'm fortified with pizza, an ice cold beer, and Rangeguy confidence, I'll work double-time on making myself ten-feet-tall and bulletproof. I now understand what Ranger meant months back when he said that not only would he die without me, he'd never be able to fully live without me.