Chapter 52: The Dark Lord on His Dark Throne

Ranger lay awake in the dead of the night inside his tastefully designed and decorated 7th floor penthouse apartment listening to the sound of Stephanie's even breathing. Once again she was lying on top of him, all soft, warm and naked(of course), sound asleep and drooling just a little bit. The temperature had suddenly dropped 20 degrees or so within the last 2 hours, and now he could hear heavy rain start pounding on the window panes. Slightly he tightened his arms around her as she stirred and murmured something in her sleep. A barely there smile crept onto his perfect lips as he wondered what the woman he loved was dreaming about. The heavenly, super moist, golden pineapple upside down cake her mother had tried like Hell to teach her to make this morning? Or the Tres Leches cake Ella had promised to teach her to make next week? Or...their Batbaby?

His smile then faltered as his finger tips felt the faint burned scar on her arm. He might be the top-notch, calculating and scheming mercenary who followed his own moral code and played by his own rules, but he was never a cold-blooded, heartless monster that took pleasure in unnecessary and meaningless torturing and killing. He still clearly remembered the look of surprise, shock and fear on the face of the first man he'd ever killed. A foreigner. A total stranger. An enemy. A young, 20-something fellow human being he'd been ordered to eliminate in the name of his country. He also remembered too well the pairs of dull unseeing dead deep brown eyes belonged to those men he'd shot in the faraway desert country to save Tank's and Lester's lives. He'd killed God knows how many people after that. He'd never hesitated to pull the trigger. He'd never known their names, their ages, or if they have loved ones anxiously waiting for their safe return in some unknown, remote, God-forsaken mountain villages, but he'd never one day forgotten the look of surprise and desperation on all those lifeless faces. Maybe that was the reason why he had chosen to put an end to his army life after watching his best friend die in front of his eyes. Maybe that was the reason why he'd chosen to go into her apartment and prepare to die. Maybe that was the reason why he'd said yes when she'd so timidly yet so bravely put the ring on his finger that night.

Gently Ranger placed a tender kiss on his wife's face and closed his eyes as the storm fell upon the sleeping city outside. Now that they were finally together, he would protect her no matter what. He would do anything to keep her safe. He'd never once regretted what he'd done to Eddie Abruzzi. And he would not hesitate to do it again.

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