Again, thanks JE for your characters we love to manipulate and pick on sometimes!
Great reviews! Thank you for more of those very kind personal messages.
A/N - Big bummer warning in this chapter. Maybe have a tissue handy. Sorry about the short chapter. Have been wrapping up my second book this week. You guys will like this one. Still funny, but a little sexier and edgier than the first, plus you know I had to drop in a little angst. ':-J
Great job jackattack1 on guessing that line from JE's book three. That was Ranger's line, "She's comes from a long line of scary women."
Alix33 depending on you to come up behind me and clean up my punctuation. Thanks girl!
Chapter 7
Tears flowed down Stephanie's face as she walked. She could smell the ocean and that was where she was headed. Her favorite place as a child had always been the beach. She had fond memories of weekends spent at Point Pleasant growing up. Pictures of her life began running in her head like a slide show. Those of her childhood, high school, college, her short first marriage, her E.E. Martin job, first job with Vinnie, relationship with Joe, meeting Ranger, the night she fell in love with Ranger, the day the world as she knew it had ended; times two. Those had been the day she got Bobby killed and the day Ranger had taken his revenge.
She ran over two blocks until she was out of breath, and then she saw it, the ocean. In the distance, it spread out as far as she could see, and it was calling to her.
There was a bridge another block away. She walked the block and stepped up on to the walkway going across. When she got about midway across, she made her decision, said a prayer, and crossed herself. She looked up in the sky and whispered, "Precious, Mommy's coming to be with you." Then she stepped over the railing, leaned forward, and let go.
Ranger walked out the door off the church and looked around. Julie and Angel were sitting on the steps of the church, his family, and Tank and Lula were standing around talking. He asked Julie, "Where's Stephanie?"
Julie looked up at him and said, "She said she was going to get something from a pharmacy, but she left her bag here." She pointed down one street. "She went that way. She was talking kind of funny."
Shit. He ran over to Tank, "I may need your help to find Stephanie. She left the church upset." He grabbed Lester. "Go ahead and round-up everyone, including the Plums and get them to the restaurant. Tank and I are going to find Stephanie."
He asked, "Something wrong?"
"Yeah, she's upset, she left her bag with Julie, and I have a bad feeling." Lester nodded, and Ranger and Tank jumped into his Porsche and took off down the street where Julie had said that Stephanie was headed.
There was no sign of her on the street. They went two more blocks and they heard voices yelling and sirens coming near. Ranger glanced over at Tank, and turned the car in that direction. Traffic was stopped on a bridge and people were gathered looking over the railing into the water below. Tank said, "Fuck man, you don't think she..."
Ranger pulled the car over and jumped out mumbling, "I think she might have..."
He ran into the crowd and pushed his way to the rail. "What happened," he yelled at no one in particular.
A guy standing close to him said, "Looked like a woman jumped. A guy went in, neither one of them has come back up yet."
Shit! Ranger dropped his suit jacket and climbed over the railing. He heard Tank yell behind him, "I got your back, man. I'm right behind you." Ranger kicked his shoes off and jumped.
When he hit the water, the impact hurt like hell and dazed him. It had been a long drop. He went down a long way and hit something, and reached out and grabbed it. It felt like an arm. He headed to the surface, and heard a splash just as he broke the surface. He'd grabbed a man, and he was unconscious. Tank came up sputtering, "Damn, that hurt like a mother."
Ranger nodded. "Yeah, take this man, get him to the bank, and pump his chest. I'm going down to look for Steph."
Tank grabbed the guy and took off swimming toward the bank. Ranger dove down with his eyes open, swimming around, hoping he would find her before it was too late. This was a channel entrance, and the water was deep and murky. He swam around till he was almost out of air and surfaced. Fuck Stephanie, he thought, what have you done?
As soon as his head cleared the surface, he heard screaming at him. He looked up and the people on the bridge were pointing. He turned around, and not far away, he saw the tip of a fin breaking the surface. He put his head under the water to see exactly how close that it was, and what he did see, made his blood run cold. He saw a flash of white material, and what may have been a leg, and it was moving away from him.
He began swimming as hard as he could toward the white material. It was eerily flowing back and forth in the water as it moved, and when Ranger got closer, he could see that it was a skirt, attached to a body, and the other leg was in a tiger shark's mouth. It was dragging her out of the channel. Ranger reached down and pulled his knife out of its sheath, surfaced for a good breath of air, and swam hard toward the shark. He stabbed it quickly in the gill, and it thrashed, and let go of the body. He then grabbed Stephanie and swam quickly for the surface.
Rescue workers now had a boat in the water, and were heading toward him. He looked at Stephanie's face. Her eyes were partly open, and she looked like she was already gone. A boat pulled up beside them and they took her from him, then pulled him from the water. He watched as they went to work on her lifeless body. He reached out and touched the leg that wasn't bleeding, and memories of Stephanie flooded his mind, making his chest tighten. So many moments he fondly remembered with her. He thought of the way she rolled her eyes at him, when he made her blush, her smiling up at him, and her laughter. She would close her eyes and tilt her head back when she knew he was getting ready to kiss her, the look on her face when they had made love, and the love in her blue eyes before Scrog had pulled the trigger. All of those memories. What he realized in that moment, was that there was love still there, and he wasn't ready to let her go.
He was jolted from his thoughts by the words, "Clear!" He let go of her leg and her body jumped. "Again! Clear!"
The technician said, "Nothing, we got nothing..."
Ranger growled and pushed them away, straddling Stephanie. He began doing chest compressions, alternating with the rescue breathing. "Come on, Babe. Please, don't let go. Please stay with me. You know you have to do it when I say please."
He worked until a hand grabbed his arm, and he snarled, raising his fist to strike. A familiar voice said, "Let her go, brother. You know she's gone."
Ranger turned his head up to the sky and roared, "Nooo...!"
Tank put his hand on his friend's back to try and comfort him. Ranger groaned, picking her lifeless body up, and hugged her to him. Then suddenly, she made a choking sound. Ranger leaned her head over, so the water could drain, then she choked again and vomited. "Come on, Babe. Take a breath."
Suddenly the big breath came, and she moved her head a little. He turned her head to look at her face, and he didn't like what he saw there. Here pupils were dilated, and she wasn't looking at him, she was just staring at a point in space, there was no light, nothing there.
A rescue worker said, "Sir, we need to prepare her for transport to the hospital." He let her go and they pulled her from his arms, and placed her on a stretcher, then began working on her again.
Ranger said more to himself than anyone. "I think maybe we were too late..."
Tank said softly, "We don't know that yet. She could be in shock. Let's head to your house when we get to shore, change our clothes, and meet them at the hospital."
On the way to Ranger's house, Tank asked him, "You want me to call Lester now?"
Ranger shook his head. "Let them finish their meal. We need to call the hotel where the Plums are staying and hold the room for another night, and cancel the jet back to Trenton today. They probably won't want to leave."
"What set her off? She looked okay during the service."
"It was part her parents and part me. She thought I told her father about her being a prostitute when I found her. Tank, I don't exactly know what all is going on in her head. It's clear now that she's desperate, and she doesn't trust me. I don't know that she trusts anyone."
"Did I see you go Rambo on a shark, man?"
Ranger nodded. "A big fucking tiger. Had dinner in his mouth and was heading out of the channel with it. If he hadn't had Stephanie, I would have maybe shit myself and blasted out of there..." He thought for a second and grinned at Tank. "like an Olympic swimmer."
Tank chuckled. "I'm glad you handled that one on your own. I was standin' on that bank tryin' to decide if you was worth me puttin' my fine black ass back in that water. I've faced down a lot of big enemies before, but I don't like the ones with big teeth."
Ranger mumbled, "Yellow fucker..." Tank guffawed, filling the small car with his booming laughter.
On the way to the hospital, Ranger called Lester and asked him to bring the Plum family to the hospital, and tell his family to go home for now. He told him to get Julie home on the way. Lester called back almost immediately, and told him that Julie didn't want to go. "She says that she promised Stephanie that she would care for Angel. She wants to stay at the house with her."
Ranger thought about it for a minute. He could use Julie as a sitter for Angel. He would have to get Rachel's approval first. "Okay, tell her that I'll call her mother." He disconnected and made a quick call to the Martine's to ask if Julie could stay for a few days to help with Angel. They agreed, but reminded him that school was starting in a week.
He pulled into the hospital parking lot and turned to look at his best friend. "Come on man, it may not be that bad. You know Stephanie, she's a tough one."
Ranger thought, but that's the problem. This woman was not exactly his Stephanie. He didn't know this woman.
TBC -
