Chapter 11- State of Awareness
Disclaimer: I don't own any of Janet Evanovich's characters
a/n thanks again for all the reviews guys! It's been great! I'm so sorry for the wait but here it is! Enjoy!
A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous
Ingrid Bergman
Groggily, my mind woke up and I immediately wished for sleep again. My body was heavy and dull pain was moving sluggishly through my veins. My mind was in a dazed state of awareness but my body still seemed content to sleep so I concentrated just on trying to open my eyes. I wasn't sure if I had power over my vocal cords yet but in least in my mind I let out a small sound of discontent as my heavy eyes remained closed.
Then I heard a voice at my ear that raised my spirits. 'Babe.' I struggled harder against the darkness pressing down on my eyes, trying to find the owner of the voice. It was so hard though and I was ready to give up again when I heard his voice again. 'Babe, open those beautiful blue eyes for me. I know it's hard but you gotta keep trying.'
I struggled against myself a bit longer before my eyes slowly opened. First just a crack but when I could see his face, I made them open fully. I tried to sit up but Ranger immediately pushed me down again and honestly I was glad because to my frustration it hurt when I even tried to sit up.
I blew out a sigh and looked at the man by my side. He looked haggard but a smile still lit his face when he saw my eyes open. He leaned down and gently pressed his lips against mine. I could feel my previous sluggish blood speed up at the innocent, intimate contact. He pulled away and pressed a small kiss to my temple and breathed into my ear, 'Babe.'
I smiled, hearing everything he meant in that word and feeling everything he felt in that kiss. 'Ranger,' I tried to speak but it really came out as more of a croak. He turned away for a moment and when he turned back, he had a cup of water in his hands. He put the straw to my mouth. 'Drink babe, slowly.' I took a few sips before releasing the straw. He put it back down and I tried to speak again. 'Ranger.' Satisfied to hear that it came out relatively normally, I kept speaking. 'What's the damage?' I was glad to hear that it came through strong.
Ranger looked at me for a moment and I saw that same strange look of what I thought was guilt flash across his face. 'Bullet caught you on the shoulder but deflected on your bone. It was pretty easy to get out. We had to pop your shoulder back in and that'll ache for a few days. Babe, how in the world did you manage to dislocate your shoulder?'
I opened my mouth to answer but then snapped it back shut. Huh. I couldn't remember. I thought for a moment until I remembered the moment that the pain started in that shoulder. After a minute of thinking, I realised all the pain seemed to happen at the same time. Oooh I know. 'I slammed into my car when I figured something was wrong. With my luck, it's not surprising I managed to hit it at just the wrong angle.'
His eyes darkened and I saw that look go back into his eyes as he tried to turn away. I grabbed his wrist, ignoring the pain and forcing him to turn back to me if he didn't want to hurt me. He turned back, that blank face in place again. 'Stop turning away. Why do you keep looking guilty Ranger? You haven't done anything wrong.' I tried to sound forceful, make him answer me and I was rewarded by in least seeing surprise flit across his face before the blank face covered it again.
He was silent for a long moment, looking down at me and I did my best to out-stare him. After a minute of this, I knew he wasn't going to give anything away if he didn't want to so I let my annoyed face slip. I looked up at him pleadingly, hoping he would tell me why he was looking at me like that. Just as I was ready to give up, he blew out a sigh and sat back down on the bed next to me.
'I'm sorry babe. This is entirely my fault.' I looked back up at him incomprehensively, waiting for him to explain what he meant by that. He seemed to read the annoyance that had returned to my face and with a slight smile, probably at my stubbornness, he continued. 'We got a note. We don't know who from yet, but they were targeting you to get to me. I'm so sorry babe.'
I looked at him, waiting, but that seemed to be all he had to say. That's what had been eating at him? 'That's all Ranger?' He looked up at me again with that blank face still in place. I sighed. That thing was really inconvenient. How was I supposed to know how to respond to that!
'That's not your fault. You can't be held responsible for the actions of every nut job that has it in for you! I'm guessing in the skip tracing business you run into a few characters like that!' He still looked at me with that blank face and I felt my annoyance building again. 'And put away that damn mask. I don't like having to respond to someone when I don't know what they're feeling!'
Suddenly I was pulled into a gentle but intense hug. I hugged back as much as I could and when he released me, he pulled me into an equally emotive kiss. It was light, not in the least demanding, similar to the first, but it still left me dizzy when he pulled back. I sat there for a minute, trying to regain myself from the strangely intimate contact. 'I'm sorry babe. You're right, the business does seem to have more then its share of crazies.' He sighed, 'I shouldn't feel responsible babe but I do.' I nodded slowly, my brain taking its time to catch up with the words.
'Ok Ranger, I can live with that,' for now, I added silently in my mind. We sat there, silent for a moment, both looking at Ranger's hand as it traced patterns on my still hand. I was about to ask what was going to happen next when my tummy let out a rather loud rumble, telling me exactly how we should proceed. I heard a light chuckle and looked up at him just in time to see him scoop me up. I squealed and he grinned at me. 'I have every right this time. It would hurt too much for you to stand up so I'm just relocating you to the food.'
At the mention of food, I shut up, more then ready to eat. Ranger walked with ease into the living room. You'd think he couldn't even feel the extra 110 pounds he was carrying in his arms. Gently, he set me down on the couch and I sunk into the warm cushions that adorned it. Yeesh… didn't this man own anything you couldn't sink into? My mind flashed back to the chest I had been previously tucked into. Ok so not a safe road to go down. I turned my mind to what was for dinner instead.
I couldn't see what he was making but its delicious scent was encircling the apartment, and my tummy let out a rumble, letting its opinion about the food be known. Just then, Ranger came back into the room, carrying two mouth-watering dishes with him. I felt saliva pool in my mouth just at the smell of it. Wow. Ranger caught the lustful expression I was sending to the plate and he grinned. 'I'm feeling jealous of a plate now babe.' I snapped my head back up to face him, blushing when I realized what he had said.
He chuckled and sat down on next to me, handing me my plate carefully, making sure I had it securely on my lap. I grabbed the fork and I speared some of the food and raised it to my mouth. My shoulder, presumably the one I had dislocated, twinged a bit at the movement, moving forward from the land of just aching. However, as soon as the food hit my tongue, I forgot about the pain from my shoulder and speared in another mouthful. It tasted even better than it smelt. I leaned back into the couch, moaning as the food's flavour explored every crevice of my mouth.
Like a whirlwind I finished my food. I looked at Ranger's plate and saw that he was barely halfway through his dinner. I looked up at him curiously, speaking at the same time. 'Ranger, why are…' I cut myself off as my eyes met his. They were black and when I thought about how much I enjoyed this dinner, I realized why. 'oh.' Ranger raised his hand and ran it through my hair. 'How's a man supposed to concentrate on his food when a beautiful woman like you is making those sounds.' I blushed and I heard Ranger laugh again.
I settled myself into the couch, waiting for him to finish. He looked calmer now, less like he was going to blow a gasket. Eventually, near the end of dinner, he caught my eye. He moved our finished meals back to the coffee table and pulled me closer to him so that his arm were around my shoulders and my head was resting on his arm.
'I want you to stay in the building babe.' I turned to him, narrowed my eyes and looked at him. Well, not so much looked at him as glared at him. 'You want me to do what?' I asked him, my voice uncharacteristically low. He sighed. 'I need you to stay here babe. I'm not going to be able to concentrate on catching this guy if I'm worried about you.'
I crossed my hands across my chest. 'You'll have to deal with it. I'm not going to let the crazies run any part of my life. Any of it Ranger.' He just looked at me, not answering and I felt my patience start to slip. 'Are you going to hide Ranger. This guy isn't only after me, he's after you! Are you going to stay in the building?'
He looked at me a moment longer before answering softly. 'I want this guy off the streets babe. He's bad news and I'm not going to rely on my men to get us out of this. I need to fix this.' Right. Like his men weren't all ex-army and perfectly capable of finding one man.
I think he could sense I wasn't buying it so in a softer voice he continued. 'They're not coming after me till they get you.' That was a low blow. He knew I wouldn't want to put him in danger. It was true too. These guys wanted to use me as revenge. Ranger had to be alive for that. I could feel my resolve swaying and he could too. I saw the corner of his lips turn up. 'You wouldn't be able to go out in your condition yet anyway. I'll keep you informed every step of the way babe. But I need you to cooperate with me though.'
Damn him. It was too hard to argue with him when he was all 'logical'. I blew out an annoyed sigh. 'Fine. But I want to be very clear about how much it annoys me when you make sense.' He chuckled at that, shaking his head and drawing me back into the warm circle of his arms. I felt him press his lips to my no doubt messy hair. I turned again in his arms and pressed my lips to his. It started light but it quickly deepened with Ranger's encouragement.
Somewhere in my haze, I felt Ranger pull back and I let out a small sound of discontentment. He smiled at me and gave me a last quick kiss before carefully untangling himself from me. 'I have to go babe.' I sighed grumpily and leaned further into the couch. He swept a curl behind my ear and sighed before quickly walking out the door.
After the door closed behind him, I flopped further on the couch, noticing now from the ache that I shouldn't have crossed my arms earlier. Spotting my phone, I gingerly reached for it.
I turned on the phone and was immediately hit by too many to count texts informing me of new voicemails. Scrolling down, I could recognise most of the number from my previous adventures. Though my mother liked to use the catastrophe. However, about quarter way down I came across an 'unknown' caller. I furrowed my head in confusion. No one in the burg would put their caller ID on unknown.
Curiosity getting the better of my intention to delete all messages, I dialled to hear the voicemail. As the message started, at first all I could hear was a faint rustling. About 2 seconds into the message, when I was ready to hang up on it, when a pleasant voice came through the small speakers. Somehow, the light voice made me feel like I'd been dipped in an unidentifiable slime, partially washed in ice cold water then covered by something even ickier.
'That did not quite go to plan did it? You and Ranger were not meant to be together. No matter. You're not gonna live long beautiful.' It was only on the last word that I recognised the voice and let the phone slip from my numb fingers. I really hadn't wanted another surprise this week.
A/n Sorry for the loooong wait guys but here's your update. So guys please review. Tell me what you liked; disliked; loved; hated. I want to hear it all! As always, I ask for questions. I even send answers if it doesn't interfere too much with the plot! If it does, I just mysteriously dodge the question, but I always reply when I can and if you leave an anonymous review, I'll try to address it on my profile!! You're reviews make my day guys!