Everyone and everything recognizable belongs to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone.
"Take a breath, Babe."
If I was physically capable, I'd glare at him. That was easy for him to say. He's probably seen tons of people blown to bits in front of his eyes, but I'm still not at all used to watching someone die. I'd held it together when I had to, but now ...
"I'm ... trying," I huffed out. "Did the wife just kill herself?"
I was really hoping the scene we just witnessed hadn't been real. Since we spent the last ten minutes going over it with the police, I know just how real it is.
"Technically, yes," Ranger said, "but she also just saved her daughter."
"By killing herself!" Guess my shock is wearing off. "Now that little girl's lost both parents seconds apart."
If I'd watched this story on the news, I'd be in shock. Seeing it up close and personal ... Shit! I'm back to hyperventilating.
I was only supposed to be here picking up Douglas Waters after he was a no-show for court on a simple theft charge. Ranger had a break between business meetings and tagged along. It should've been an easy apprehension, but seconds after getting here we were thrust into a fucking nightmare. Darby, the wife, had obviously been thinking about her fate long before her husband kidnapped her and their five-year-old daughter. She'd made peace with her decision, but it's going to take me years to do the same.
We were expecting to find Douglas alone in the sleazy motel room he'd rented after the boys in blue kicked him out of what had been their family home about a week ago. But Ranger and I had heard a man shouting and a woman cry-screaming when we'd approached the door to knock. He had his finger on the trigger of his scary-looking Glock and he motioned me to the other side of the door before putting his Bates boot to it.
What happened afterwards I'll replay for the rest of my life. I had my own gun out to cover Ranger, but everything went by in fast forward and I wasn't much help. The guy's head and the gun he'd been holding whipped around as we stormed the room. The barrel of Ranger's Glock was already centered on the tiny area between the skip's eyes. He had one eye on Waters and one on the crying woman huddled in the corner. Darby's eyes were frightened and red, her face was tear-streaked, and she was desperately trying to shield her daughter's small body with her own.
I knew we'd walked into a bad situation, but I figured Ranger would have the guy subdued and cuffed in about a minute and then we'd be on our way. Life would go on for all involved. That wasn't how it played out, though. Darby Waters' shattered gaze never left Ranger. I've seen him looked at with awe plenty of times, but Mrs. Waters was staring at him like he was the answer to every one of her prayers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her mouth move. Although I couldn't hear her voice over the sudden roar of blood in my ears, I felt her intent settle on the room like a soaking wet blanket.
"Kill him," is what she mouthed to Ranger just before she jumped between the two men.
Ranger wasn't going to immediately fire if it meant possibly hitting the woman. Her soon to be ex-husband didn't give a fuck about who he hurt, and he fired at her just as Ranger's gun went off. Both bullets hit their intended target, and Mr. and Mrs. Waters fell to the floor at almost the same time.
I bit back a moan at the memory and Ranger's arms automatically tightened around me. That poor little girl. Her devastated scream is playing nonstop in my head, and I can still feel each one of her small fingers as they dug into my arms when she'd tried desperately to move past me to reach her mom.
"It's over, Steph," Ranger said into my curls.
"Not for the kid."
I'd held her shaking and sobbing body until the paramedics arrived and took her out of my arms to be checked out.
"In some ways she's much better off."
I jerked my head back to look at him. "You aren't serious?"
I flashbacked to Aleece Waters' near hysterical wails as I curled my arm over her head to keep her from seeing the gore that was all that was left of her parents. While I'd been trying to comfort her, Ranger had called in the shooting. Her aunt had been notified and promised to come get her.
Little Aleece is currently sitting dull-eyed in an ambulance. I went to see her after the police were done with me, and her tiny bubble gum pink-painted fingernails had been tightly curled into the ends of the blanket that was draped around her as she stared sightlessly out at the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles. The only good news that came out of this is she doesn't appear to be harmed beyond emotionally. Before Ranger gathered me to him, I'd been told by the paramedics that she's sad, scared, and exhausted, but otherwise okay.
"I am serious," Ranger told me, bringing me back to the present moment. "Her father's dead so he can't torment them anymore."
"But her mom ..."
I blinked furiously. I already freaked once, I'm not doing it again.
"Her mother is through suffering. If Waters had been arrested, he'd get out on bail and they'd be right back where they started, even with a restraining order. They'd spend every minute of the day and night terrified. You saw his eyes before he shot her, Steph. He wasn't about to let them live without him. Darby Waters understood that."
My mother and I have our share of issues, but I can't even begin to imagine what her being killed right in front of me would do ... and I'm an adult no longer dependent on her. Sure, Aleece is safe now, but she still won't be able to sleep at night.
"Yeah, but now that little girl will have to spend every minute of the day and night reliving this ... and missing her mom. It was traumatic enough watching Julie watch you get shot, but thank God you didn't die."
"Julie's strong and this girl will be, too. She's alive, Babe. Don't forget that. You recognized all the signs. He'd crossed the line from abusive to homicidal. He'd already made up his mind to kill both of them at some point. If not today, then likely tomorrow or a year from now after he was through mentally torturing them. Darby accepted that fact and did the only thing she felt she could. She died so her daughter can finally live."
"What kind of life can she possibly have?"
"Whichever one she chooses. I had the control room run the aunt while you were checking on her. She and her husband of fifteen years are pretty well off. They have no kids, but were starting to look into adoption. She's a second-grade teacher, he's a contractor. No arrests for either. And they just renewed their vows in Hawaii six months ago, so a divorce doesn't appear to be in their immediate future."
"Wow. Talk about having the same DNA but living totally opposite lives," I said, thinking a little about the differences between Val and I.
"I'm sure that figured into Darby's decision. She couldn't give her daughter the kind of life she deserved so she tried to ensure that someone else could."
"This sucks," I said, wiping my eyes again.
"It does. But this is reality."
"Yeah ... well ... reality sucks, too."
He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips and then wrapped an arm around my shoulders, tucking me close to his body as he moved me towards his car.
"Some parts of life do suck," he said, opening the door for me, "but there are definite perks to being alive."
"Getting to eat dessert?" I asked, as I started to crumple up all the images from today into tiny mental balls so I could roll them into the cobwebby area of my brain I try not to visit too often.
"For you? Yeah ... cake is a perk. For me ... the best part of being alive is waking up beside you every morning and knowing that I get to go to bed with you every night."
He braced one big hand on the roof of the car and one on my open door before leaning in. I met his mouth halfway. What we had just been part of is indescribably horrible, but something like that does make you stop and think about what you have to be grateful for. Getting to live to see another day is one. But being able to share every one of those days now with Ranger is what gets me up in the morning. And he's the only one who can get me to sleep at night after we survive a day like this one.