The feeling in my rear had gone away hours ago, and this road trip was dragging on more than I had expected. When Ranger had first asked me to come along for distraction to get a skip I seriously thought it would be a little more than what I was experiencing. So yea, maybe Texas is pretty damn far away, but the road trip novelty hadn't been lost on me.
I knew that flying was out of the question, the kind of equipment that was needed wouldn't exactly get a clean pass through the airport security. But when I heard we were driving all I could think about was getting to have Ranger in a close confined space for hours and maybe making a crack in him enough to leak me some information about himself.
I did feel somewhat guilty, Joe and I had called it quits just last week, and yet here I was, free as could be, allowing myself to be swept off cross country in tow of Ranger. At least I had turned down the passenger seat, but that left me being smack dab in the middle of Lester and Bobby with just a hair's width of personal space.
"You ok Bombshell?" Tank made me come back to reality. He had been the one to take the coveted passenger seat.
"Yea just trying to keep myself from dying of boredom, don't you guys ever play road games?"
That certainly earned me a look from the rearview mirror, I couldn't tell if Ranger was smiling or not but his eyes had gone crinkly around the edges so I took it as a sign he was amused.
"Why don't you take a nap Babe?"
The question didn't even need an answer, Ranger could see that I was a bit cramped.
Another SUV was supposed to have been coming along to transport the others but wouldn't be making its appearance until tomorrow due to some issues about its GPS tracker.
Lucky for me the 24 hour drive it was going to take us to get to this blip-on-the-map town in Texas was being split in half and we would be stopping at a hotel soon. Might as well take the time to look over the file of the FTA that would be trying to cop a feel up my skirt later.
Randy Daniels, early 40's, green eyes, brown hair, average Joe Shmoe. This was the same as I always saw on most FTAs. The part that got me somewhat jumpy was his rap sheet.
The charge he skipped for was drug trafficking to Trenton, with the drugs suspected of originating in Mexico. There were some other charges that were listed he hadn't been convicted of; assaults, DWI, murder….
"Jeez, Ranger. You never told me this guy was nuts!"
Ranger looked at me and gave me a big smile, "You don't trust me and the rest of Rangeman to keep you safe?"
"You could have at least told me the guy was a basket case," I said under my breath. This earned some chuckles from Lester and Bobby who were on each side of me. I knew they had experienced creeps way worse than this, on a more normal basis than I did.
This could be argued though, due to the fact that I seem to attract a stalker with every new start of the month.
I decided to take Ranger up on that nap though, made best as I could in my cramped space, and fell asleep to the sounds of Tank and Ranger mumbling over a game they had caught on TV the night before.