Previous Chapter: I quickly threw on a set of my Rangeman uniforms out of Ranger's closet. You're probably asking why I have clothes in Ranger's closet. I don't know what to tell you because I'm still trying to figure out that question myself. He claims they're emergency clothes because I tend to get myself into literal messes a lot, but why not keep it in one of the lockers in the locker room down in the gym? It's still a mystery to me.
I waved goodbye to Ranger as I hooked my arm into Les' arm and took off to go see some movie about aliens and robots. Thank god it was a movie about something serious and I could truly wrap my mind around.
CHAPTER 11
I stretched out in my chair and let out a loud yawn. It was six in the morning and my butt was starting to fall asleep but the rest of my body wasn't allowed to. Today I was working guard duty for a shipment warehouse with Ram, a Merry Man that I haven't had the pleasure of working with yet — or injuring. But you know the day is still young, with me anything could happen.
"My butt is falling asleep," I whined shifting in the seat with the semi-automatic rifle leaning up against the wall next to me. Ok maybe I should've been holding it in place and looking professional like Ram. I also probably should've been standing instead of slouched down in a chair for that matter as well. But that giant piece of machinery scared the bejeebus out of me. When Les tried to train me on how to use it, the noise alone was enough to make a person shit their pants.
I looked over at Ram who sat stiffly in his seat in position with his blank face in place. I swear these Merry Men were like a bunch of robots. Even though Les may be a jokester, he can turn into stealth mode in a matter of seconds. Me? I couldn't sit still for longer than five seconds.
"Hey, you got anything to eat? I'm starting to get a little hungry," I asked Ram.
Silence.
Prick. A simple "no" would've sufficed. I tried not to stare at him. Even though he was a prick, he was a good looking one. How can I describe Ram? Sexy cowboy. That's what he was. When he shook my hand for the first time and introduced himself, I swear I turned into a pile of goo. He had this soft southern twang that made you just want him to whisk you away on his steed, Silver, into the sunset.
I slumped back into my seat. Two more hours and we would be relieved from our shift and I would have to run to the Bond's Office to drop off my body receipts and collect my files for the day.
The last couple of nights, I've only been able to get in a couple of hours a sleep. And I managed to wake up in a different man's bed every day. Ok before you start getting the village people all worked up into a frenzy with their pitchforks and torches and start throwing stones at me, accusing me of being the town whore, it's not what you think. Apparently the guys see how exhausted I get after each shift and whisk me away to their apartments so that I can catch some shut eye. This way I'm not behind the wheel of my car half asleep. And the best part was each and every one of them was a gentleman, letting me take their beds as they took the couch. I just wish that I wasn't so easily kidnapped.
"Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?" I fanned myself shifting uncomfortably.
Silence.
I let out a loud sigh and quickly sat up in my seat. Something suddenly felt off. My spidey senses were working full time. "Something's not right—" I started to say when a loud explosion pushed us back slamming us into the wall behind us.
Several armed men charged into the room armed to the brim with greasy hair and sporting a lot of gold bling. Did I just get transported into a mob film and not realize it? I lay still on the ground pretending to be unconscious. I peeked over at Ram who was knocked unconscious under a pile of rubble. Then men rushed through the room past us through the doors that lead into the shipment area.
I quietly crawled over to Ram and called out his name quietly. He didn't respond. I checked to make sure he was breathing when his phone began to buzz. I grabbed it and answered.
"This is the control room. We're showing disturbance at the Larson Warehouse. What's your status?"
"Binkie, we've been hit. Ram is down," I said quietly over the phone as I reached over and grabbed my rifle.
"I'm sending in backup, Bomber. Stay hidden and wait for backup," he instructed me.
"I gotta go," I replied ignoring his instructions. By the time backup came, those men could be long gone. Or who knows, they could come back here and finish the job. I leaned in and gave Ram a kiss on the cheek and tried removing as much of the rubble off of him that I could, "Everything's going to be ok, Ram."
I snuck into the warehouse and hid behind one of the crates.
"It has to be around here somewhere," one of the men barked. "Crate 787!"
The men spread out going through numerous wooden crates. I snuck up closer to one man with a giant diamond stud in his ear and pulled out my taser, juiced it up and zapped him in the neck. He slumped over. Well, what do you know? Rangeman equipment actually worked.
"Hey, did you hear something?" a man shouted.
"Yeah, you oaf, you shouting," another man chuckled.
"Did you make sure those two guards were secured," the shouting man asked.
"Yeah, the guy was unconscious and the girl…well, she's a girl. What is she going to do?" Mr. Giggles laughed.
"Hey!" I cried out angrily jumping out from behind the crate. Shit! What the hell was wrong with me?
"Hey look! Little bambino wants to come out and play," Mr. Giggles amused.
"Don't just stand there! Get her!" Mr. No Humor shouted.
Mr. Giggles charged at me and tackled me to the ground. "You're a pretty little thing," he commented holding me down on the cold cement floor.
I slammed my head into his chin and rolled out from under him. Swiping my rifle that he took off of us off of the ground, I swung it at his head like a baseball bat. Blood spurt out of his nose like a geyser.
I slammed the butt of the rifle down on his head and heard a man shout "Stop messing around" followed by popping sounds. I ducked behind a crate and shuffled around the room quickly.
I stayed tucked in between two crates trying to watch out for anyone approaching me when a hand clamped over my mouth.
"It's me," Ram said quietly and released me. He made a hand gesture for me to follow his lead. A fat pudgy man started closing in on us; Ram quickly threw out a punch and took the man out with a single blow. Amazing…I gushed.
Ram turned and motioned for me to stay put and I gave him a head nod as he disappeared across the room. I heard a couple of loud cracking sounds. I saw another man with way too many rings on his finger shuffling around the crate. I squatted in a sitting position and kicked out back of his knee bringing him to his knees. Swinging the rifle, I connected with his face and sent him crashing to the ground. I felt a pair of hands around my waist and suddenly I was lifted off of my feet and thrown across the room.
I scrambled to my feet as I heard several men shouting out at me. I noticed Ram had once again appeared behind me. Something drew my attention to the rafters above us; I looked up as a man pointing his rifle down at us.
I shoved Ram down onto the ground and threw myself on top of him when I heard the loud popping sound as the wind was knocked out of me and the room went black.
"Bomber!" I heard a Bobby's muffled voice shout at me. "Help me get this vest off of her."
I felt a tight pressure in my chest and suddenly the pressure was released and I shot up gasping for air.
"Easy there, Bomber. You were shot but it hit your vest. I'm going to have to take you back to Rangeman and check you out to make sure you didn't crack your ribs again," Bobby explained to me.
I jumped to my feet feeling the heat boiling inside of me trying hard to ignore the searing pain in my chest, "Where's Ram?"
"Right here," he said standing next to me.
I threw my arms around him. "Thank, God!"
He patted me awkwardly on the back. "Thanks for throwing yourself in front of the bullet. But it wasn't necessary."
"Where are those assholes?" I shouted angrily.
"Babe, they've been detained," Ranger appeared by my side.
I saw from the corner of my eyes, Lester, Hal, and Cal dragging the men through the warehouse in handcuffs. Running towards them, I snatched the rifle off the ground and marched over to the men.
"Which one of you shot me?" I screamed.
"Should've shot you in the head, bitch," Mr. Giggles, who was no longer giggling, stated as his nose continued to drip all over the floor.
"Shut up," I smashed the butt of the gun into his face again hopefully breaking his nose permanently.
"You fucking, Bitch!" he hollered in agony.
"Which one of you shot me?" I swung the gun like bat into Mr. No Humor in the gut.
"Beautiful, maybe you should calm down," Les said softly.
"Yeah, listen to your boyfriend," a scrawny man leered. I saw a gleam in his eyes. "You have some pretty nice tits for a tiny girl," he smirked.
I looked down and realized that Bobby had not just cut the Kevlar vest off of me but he had also cut off my bra and Rangeman t-shirts were very form fitting.
Shaking his comment out of my thoughts I stepped towards him and glared. "You shot me," I stated firmly.
He grinned, "Come a little closer and press them up against me. I be they're nice and soft," he smirked.
Cal tightened his grip on the man's arm and twisted it roughly around his back as the man sucked in his breath.
I tossed the gun to the ground and stepped into him. "You want to feel something?"
He licked his lips with his eyes fixated on my breasts.
"I'll let you know what it feels like to be shot!" I shouted ramming my knee into his groin repeatedly. "How does it feel? Hurts like a bitch sorta like this, doesn't it?" Ranger pulled me back. "Think about that the next time you try shooting someone asshole!"
Ranger dumped me into one of the SUVs, slammed the door and walked away.
The door swung open minutes later and Les slid in next to me. "Beautiful, I thought I taught you how to shoot the rifle, not use is as baseball bat."
I scrunched my nose, "I made a mess of things didn't I?"
"I would say you handled yourself fantastically. But you better cover yourself up before Ranger sends every man her to the mats," he winked.
I blushed crossing my arms over my chest as Bobby climbed into the driver seat and turned around towards us. "Are you ok, Bomber?" he asked with concern.
"Why did you cut off my bra?" I said quietly to him.
"To help you breathe easier."
Ok makes sense. I nodded my head in understanding.
"Is Ranger mad at me?" I asked Les as he slid into the SUV next to me.
"Why would you say that?"
"Because he usually sits with me," I said softly.
"I don't think he's mad at you, Beautiful. I think he may just be stressed. I wouldn't look too deep into it."
When we returned to Rangeman, all of the guys hugged me and thanked me for my courageousness for taking a bullet for Ram. Bobby finished giving me the full wellness check-up. I went up to 5 to complete some of my paperwork when I heard Tank's booming voice from down the hall.
"Little Girl, can I see you in my office?" Tank called out to me.
I slipped into the into Tank's office and found Ranger sitting in one of the guest seats with his hands steepled.
"Close the door," Tank instructed.
I closed the door and carefully took a seat in the empty guest chair.
"Little Girl, about today's event. First, I want to congratulate you on a job well done. You helped stop the theft of multi-million dollar artifacts. But there's something that is bothering me," he paused.
I swallowed hard. Fuck, I'm going to get fired.
"I believe that Binkie gave you specific instructions to stay low until backup arrived and yet you went after the intruders by yourself."
"I didn't want them to get away before you guys arrived and I was concerned that they would turn back around and finish us off," I tried explaining.
"We follow protocol for a reason, Little Girl — to avoid mishaps and for the safety of the team."
"You could've been killed!" Ranger roared jumping out of his seat. His eyes were as dark as coals as he towered over me in my chair. Not once have I ever seen Ranger this angry at me and truthfully it terrified me.
Tears spilled from my eyes, "I'm sorry. I-I just reacted. And seeing Ram lying there unconscious made me so angry I just reacted." I stood abruptly from my chair.
Ranger's eyes were filled with rage as he grabbed my arm roughly, "Rules were made for a reason. To ensure the safety of the team! Nobody and especially you are not above orders!" he spat out in what felt to me like uncontrolled anger.
"I-I'm sorry," I whimpered. "I-I understand if you want to fire me. I don't want to mess up the great thing that you have going here. I'll just grab my things and leave. I'm so very sorry."
I ran out of his office and down the hall. As I approached the stairs, I crashed into Cal who grabbed ahold of me.
"Bomber, what's wrong?" he asked concerned.
"I-I just need to go home now."
"You're not driving in this condition. Have you even had Bobby check you out yet? Who made you cry? Was it Santos?" he growled Les' name loudly.
"Why is it when a girl cries, everyone automatically assumes it's my fault," Les joked popping out of his cubicle. "Beautiful, what's the matter?" he ran up to me.
Within minutes, I was surrounded by a wall of men in black reaching out for me, filling my ears with questions, clouding my mind with concern. I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating. I clutched my chest and slumped into Cal's arms.
