Chapter 21

The way he answered me told me he wasn't going to tell me so instead of worrying like I would normally do, I was just going to enjoy being in his company. As we walked it became obvious that the light was dimming but and as Ranger slowed down, he turned us into a restaurant that had the sign, Habana Village, hung up outside. As we stepped inside, I was surprised at how modern the place was. The lighting was low over a solid wooden floor with a long bar area and an area that had tables set out for eating. We were shown to a table and handed our menus which I have to say looked interesting. I knew that Ella had served up some of the things I was seeing, so I decided to go for something new.

"Babe?"

"I'm going to have Lechon Asado, roasted pork marinated in a "mojo criollo" and then sautéed with red onions and spices. Served with black bean and white rice"

"No starter?"
"Nah, I'd rather leave room for dessert"

When the waitress came for our order Ranger ordered sparkling water for both of us and a dish called Pollo a la Plancha for his meal. I looked again at the menu for what he was having and discovered it was grilled butterflied chicken breast topped with fresh garlic, parsley and olive oil, served with black bean and white rice. Everything was served with black bean and white rice.

"Is this the type of food that you're used to?"
"I suppose it is. My parents and Grandmother were very keen to keep up some of their Cuban heritage and I found that I missed it. Ella tends to keep to similar recipes, plus it is a lot healthier for you"

"I do actually enjoy this type of food, but I'm not too sure I could let go of my love for desserts"
"I think you'll love the Cuban desserts just as much"

I wasn't sure that anything could match the taste of doughnuts or something like tiramisu, but I was willing to try. I felt Ranger take my hand as he stood up, making me wonder what he was going to do.

"Let's dance while we wait for our meal"

I'd heard the low sound of music as we'd come into the restaurant but as Ranger led me past the bar area the music grew louder. Latino music wasn't something I listened to, so I was surprised when I thought I recognized the song. What confused me was that it was being sung in Spanish. There were already people on the dance floor, under the flashing colored lights and Ranger led me to one side where there seemed to be some space. I was surprised when his hands rested on my hips so mine automatically went to his shoulders.

Not being too sure of what was expected I watched a couple that were close to us, watched how they moved together. I was sure I could do that, so concentrated really hard on where my feet were going. As the song ended, or should I say merged into a new one I looked up to see Ranger watching me. This new song had a slower tempo, so I was more confident with the moves, but I was also aware of Ranger moving my hips in time with his. In fact, I'd say we were very close together and every so often his leg would step between mine when he turned me. My eyes never left his as we moved to the beat of the music and I found myself totally lost in the moment, totally in tune with him. And I was getting totally turned on. I was only aware that we'd stopped dancing, if you could call it that, when the rhythm of the music changed to something faster and Ranger's hand was at the base of my back guiding me back to the table.

As we approached, I saw the waitress stood ready to serve us, a smile on her face as she acknowledged us. I had to admit I was ready to eat, and so we spent the first few minutes doing just that. Once that initial rush of food was devoured, I looked across at Ranger, feeling so happy to be here with him and to be able to experience a side of him I had never seen before.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?"
"As soon as I could walk. I had older sisters that needed to practice, plus it was always part of our culture. Where did you learn?"
"Me. My Mum made me go to lessons, but I was terrible. No one wanted to partner with me, so I dropped out"

"You're not terrible, you have a natural ability, maybe you just weren't learning the right dances"

"I probably . . ."

I didn't get to finish my sentence because stood next to me was a beautiful Latino woman, She flicked her long dark hair over her shoulder as she moved closer to Ranger. It was obvious that she was focused on him, her dark brown eyes never leaving his face. I turned as Ranger stood up, wiping his mouth with a napkin, before facing her.

"Carlos, I didn't know you were here in town, you didn't call me"
"Alicia"

I watched as she moved close to him, one hand on his hip as she cupped his face with the other. She kissed him on each cheek and then had both hands on his shoulders.

"Are you going to dance with me Carlos?"
Ranger took hold of her hands from his shoulders and moved them down to her side, keeping hold of her wrists in his hands.

"Carlos, your assistant doesn't need you, but I do. I've missed you"

I placed my fork on my plate as I watched, somehow my appetite gone. I suppose I had always known that Ranger saw other women. It would be hypocritical of me to think otherwise, especially when I was back and forth with Joe. As Ranger leaned into her and started to talk to her quietly, I decided to leave them to it. I picked up my bag and headed for the ladies room. At least then I could maybe get my emotions under control before I went outside and tried to find Les or Ram. Hell, that would be embarrassing, trying to explain why I was outside, and Ranger was still inside.

I spied the place I needed at the back of the room and was soon closing the door behind me. I was so relieved that it appeared to be empty and used one of the cubicles. As I stood in front of a sink washing my hands, I looked at my reflection. I wasn't sure if my cheeks were red from the dancing or from being so embarrassed. Who did I think I was to think that Ranger would ever commit to me, to love me when he could have any woman he wanted?

I was obviously not his type. I was white skinned not dark, I was blue eyed not brown. My hair was brown and unruly not dark and straight. He'd shown me tonight how important his heritage was to him and I just didn't fit. I was plain, not slender and elegant, and let's not forget beautiful.

With a sigh I splashed cold water onto my face and used a paper towel to dry myself. As I tossed it in the bin thinking of how I could leave the restaurant without being seen the door opened and two women walked in. I hadn't taken much notice of them until I was aware of them right behind me. A look in the mirror showed Alicia and another dark skinned woman, though she was nowhere near as pretty.

"This the white trash?"
"Yeah, though I have no idea why Carlos would bring her here"
"Hell, Alicia, she's no competition for you. You know Carlos is your man"

"Well let's make sure shall we"
"What do have in mind?"
My eyes were going back and forth between them, but I had no idea what to say anyway.

In some ways I should have anticipated better what happened next, but come on, we were in an upmarket restaurant and these women were supposed to have class, so when Alicia suddenly opened a door behind me, I was totally taken unawares. The friend laughed, or was it a cackle, before I felt Alicia grab hold of my hair and yank me backwards. Her friend pushed me on my back and suddenly I was falling through the door only to trip on something and land inelegantly on the ground, face first.

I heard the door slam closed behind me so pushed myself up from the ground with my hands. I couldn't believe it as I looked at my hands and then down at my dress. I was covered in dirt and something oily. I sat on the ground looking at the closed door realizing it was a fire escape and there was no way of opening it from the outside. Not that I would go back inside, not looking like this.

I suppose I was where I always seemed to end up, on the ground and covered in dirt. I felt so lost, in some ways so alone and felt the tears start to form. Not only did Ranger have a special woman but she'd managed to really put me in my place by degrading me. I hated her, yet as I thought about it, I suppose she had a right to be annoyed. I would be if I found the man who was mine in a restaurant with another woman, and white trash at that.

I slowly pushed myself up onto my feet and for the first time looked around at where I was. I seemed to be in a back alley, behind the restaurant and probably other shops. There was enough light coming from the windows of the building to see with, at least dumpsters were the same here in Washington as they were in Trenton.

I wasn't too sure which way to walk because neither direction showed any possibility of getting back onto the main street. I went to my right, not sure why, and started to walk down the alley. I have to say that I was starting to get a bit nervous, I mean I was on my own, in a city I didn't know wandering down a dark back alley. I had no phone, or money and didn't have a clue where the hotel was or even what it was called.

I suppose I'd only been walking for maybe ten minutes when I was sure there was someone ahead of me. I thought about hiding behind a dumpster but shrugged that off. Whoever was there would see me doing it and if they were just innocently walking around, I'd feel stupid. I know I slowed down, but I sensed that this other person hadn't. As they came closer, I stopped to really look at the figure approaching me, knowing that from the way they walked I knew who it was. I stopped and waited for him to reach me, not really knowing what to feel seeing him here.

He didn't slow down until he was right in front of me and I didn't get a chance to say anything before I was being held tightly against him.

"I am so sorry Babe"
"No, it's okay, I understand"
And I did understand, but that didn't mean I liked it.

"She's a woman that I used to see. A woman who thinks she has a claim on me"

"She's very pretty"
Shit, what a stupid thing to say, but I didn't know what else to say.

"It's none of my business Ranger"
"How are you here?"
"Maybe you need to let go of me or you're going to covered in oil"
"Babe?"
He stepped back and then pulled me into a lit area and looked at me, sweeping his eyes from my feet to my head. I knew tears were forming again, hell he must think I'm a complete disaster. Maybe I was.

"Did Alicia do that?"
"Her and her friend pushed me out of a fire exit. I'm sorry"
"Why are you sorry?"

"I spoiled your evening with her and ended up a mess"

"The best part of the evening was dancing with you. I don't give a shit about Alicia, she's a gold digger, only interested in looks and money"

"But I thought"

"No. Come on, let's get back to the hotel while we still have time before our flight"

"How did you know where I was?"

He didn't reply, instead he lifted up my arm and looked at the watch fastened around my wrist.

Once back at the hotel I walked straight into the shower and stripped off my clothes. Ranger hadn't said a word once he'd hailed a taxi, which didn't help my mood. It took a lot of soap to get rid of the oil from my skin and hair, but once squeaky clean I redressed in some jeans and a thin sweater. In the bedroom I threw the clothes I'd been wearing into the trash bin and packed any clothes that I had.

When I went through to the lounge area Ranger was stood looking out of the window talking on his phone. He turned as I entered and put the phone away before walking to me and taking my hand in his. It was such a simple gesture, but it meant so much to me, it made my heart skip a beat at how it made me feel. But then reality crashed down on me when I realized what I'd been thinking. I felt so stupid to let my heart rule my head, we were best friends and I'd have to let that be enough.

I had to say that arriving at the airport in a black SUV and seeing the black jet sat on the tarmac brought back memories. I was more than wide awake as we left the car and gripped tightly onto Ranger as we started to walk. Hell, I was even looking behind me as we approached the steps that led up into the plane.

"I have men watching, Babe"
I should have known that he'd be more than a little cautious and it did make me feel better. As soon as we were on board, I sank down into one of the leather seats. I was surprised that we were the only people on the plane, well except for the pilot, when the plane began to taxi toward the end of the runway.

When we suddenly stopped, and I saw Ranger open the door again I was staring wide eyed for what might happen. Seeing Les and Ram suddenly appear and close up the door made me realize that they had probably been keeping surveillance on the plane.

"Nothing Ranger"
"Good"
"You doing okay Beautiful?"
"I am now Les"

As the men took their seats and Ranger sat down next to me the plane started to suddenly accelerate down the runway it wasn't long before we were airborne. I released the grip I'd had on Ranger's hand and then felt the back of the seat recline beneath me. I was too tired to even think about what lay ahead of me in Trenton, I'd figure it out tomorrow.

Amazingly it was the rush of air coming through the door that woke me, not the landing, so I struggled to unfasten my belt. I felt quite groggy as I stumbled my way forward toward the steps. As I rubbed my eyes to try to waken up, I screamed as I felt my feet being swept from underneath me and looked up to see Les carrying me down toward the two black SUVs parked close by.

"Hey, I can walk"

"Beautiful, you're half asleep"

Okay, maybe I was, and maybe it was a safer way to get me off the plane. I was deposited in the back seat and was vaguely aware of Tank up front in the driver's seat and of Ranger closing the trunk before getting in beside him. Needless to say, I was soon asleep again across the seat not really knowing what time it was anyway.

I awoke once more feeling a little disorientated, the last memory I had was of being in the car on the way back into Trenton. As I stretched, I felt a pillow tucked into my stomach, being held by my arm that was around it. The first sensation I had was the smell coming from it, an intoxicating smell of Ranger and Bulgari but on opening my eyes I realized I was alone in the bed. I had a moment of déjà vu when I'd woken up like this before, just before Jack had called for me to go down to Washington. When Ranger had seemed to disappear again. The need to go to the bathroom was a more pressing feeling so I quickly slid from the bed and made my way into the bathroom. As I sat on the toilet, I realized that all I was wearing were my panties and T-shirt from yesterday.

After washing my hands and face, brushing my teeth and pulling my hair back into a ponytail I opened the door to return to the bedroom in order to find some comfortable clothes for the day. I came to an abrupt halt at the sight of Ranger sat on the edge of the bed. Unfortunately, the bathroom door swung closed hitting me on the back so my entry into the bedroom wasn't exactly elegant. I stood looking at Ranger who was looking at me and felt embarrassed. I couldn't read the expression on his face which made me feel very wary of moving or saying anything.

I was surprised when he held out his hand, indicating for me to go to him. As he took my hand, he pulled me forward and lent back onto the bed resulting in me laid on my back against the pillows, but with my legs over his. I felt his hand gently caress the inside of my thighs following the path of where the bruises were. They looked worse than they felt and were now a deep purple with the yellowing effect already starting to appear.

"Does it hurt?"
"No"

"Did he hurt you anywhere else?"

I suppose if Ranger had removed my bra from underneath my T-shirt then he wouldn't have seen the similar bruising on my left breast.
"My left breast is still a bit tender"

"Babe, are you ready to tell me about what happened?"

I had to think that one through, I mean as far as I knew Jack couldn't remember and as a I wasn't going to be seeing him again then the chances of it happening was nearly none existent. My biggest fear was that Ranger would be so annoyed if he knew it had been Jack, he'd find a way of beating the shit out of him.

"I'm not sure. I mean I won't be seeing him again and he did come off worse than me"

"You had every right to defend yourself"
"I know, but I thought at first I'd killed him I hit him that hard"
"Good, he deserved it and probably worse"

Yeah, just like I thought, if Ranger knew who it had been, he'd do him serious damage.

"I thought I'd stay inside today and continue looking into Jinski"
"Good idea, I spoke with Daniel yesterday and as the FBI have closed the cases he's going to fax everything they have over"
"Does he know why?"
"Yes, but he won't say anything unless we find something and then he'll pave the way for us to negotiate a contract with the FBI"

"Okay, I need to get dressed"

I leaned up and kissed him on his cheek before leaving him on the bed, I think he looked surprised with that and I was pleased with myself for deflecting the conversation away from my attack. I dressed in a Rangeman uniform that consisted of a black T-shirt and cargos with black cat boots on my feet. I'd even found my gun in the bedside cabinet where I'd left it and had it tucked into the back of my trousers. I found Ranger in the kitchen sat eating something that looked like twigs and bark. I watched as he poured out a second mug of coffee from the pot on the table and sat down to add some sugar and cream to it. That's when I saw a bowl of what looked like yoghurt on the table and another bowl with lots of cut fruit in it. Much as it went against my basic desire for something sugary for breakfast, I helped myself to a spoonful of each, filling an empty bowl in front of me.

"Are you okay with that, I can ask Ella to bring something up for you?"
"No, this is fine, thanks"

I was maybe making a plan as I went along but for a spur of the moment decision this was what I needed to do. I had to show Ranger that I could fit in with him and his lifestyle. I was actually surprised when I tasted the concoction in my bowl that it tasted as good as it did. Maybe I didn't have to get my sugar through desserts or pastries because the fruit certainly added a sweetness that was good. As I finished, I'd already come up with my next plan of action.

"I thought maybe I'd go down to the range sometime today. Do you have time, or should I ask someone else to help me out?"

His raised eyebrow was obviously his way of questioning my sanity, so I had my response.

"Hey, I agreed to do it, so I was only asking"

I waited as he thought through what he was going to say and felt disappointment wash through me. Maybe he was serious about the training as long as he didn't have to do it?

"I think you'd probably be better with Ram, he's the expert in the range and to be honest Babe, I think you'd distract me too much to do it properly"
"Distract you? What do you mean?"
I was probably frowning at what he'd said, trying to work out what he meant but then I felt annoyed, did he think I was that bad that I wouldn't be serious about it?

"I didn't mean that to sound as it did. Having you close to me, firing a weapon, I wouldn't be able to train you properly"

I tried to raise an eyebrow at him; but knew that both went up. I was trying to work something out from what he'd said.

"Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"A compliment Babe. Ram will be strict with you where I would be too soft with you"
"Okay. So what about teaching me to punch. You said you'd do that"
"I will. Maybe we could do that just before lunchtime?"

I finished my breakfast without saying anything else and then took my bowl to the sink to rinse it out before putting it in the dishwasher. Ranger did the same, including the other empty bowls from the table. By the time I'd retrieved the papers that I'd started on Jinski he was waiting for me by the door, ready to go downstairs. As I approached, I was taken by surprise when pulled me to him and felt his mouth on mine. He was very gentle as he brushed his lips across mine though took the hint that I wanted more when I opened my mouth in invitation. The kiss wasn't as passionate as I was used to from him, more careful and testing. As he pulled away, I noticed he was watching me very carefully.

"Ranger, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. I wasn't too sure how you would feel doing that, I wanted to be sure you could cope with it"

I had never given a second thought about how Ranger would react to me after me being assaulted. I mean I had done, but my thoughts were more along the lines that another man might be disgusted with me and what had been done to me or that I wouldn't be comfortable. I hadn't considered that Ranger would be thinking of how I would feel.

"I, it was just that"

I closed my eyes trying to find the right words that I needed to say.

"I thought others would be disgusted with me and what happened or that I would panic if someone touched me"

"Never Babe. I could never be disappointed with you, but I don't want to do anything that might make you feel uncomfortable"
"Thank you"

"We'll take it one step at a time, okay?"

I nodded my head as the realization of what he'd said hit me. Take it one step at a time meant he was going to be there supporting me, didn't it? Of course, the cynical thoughts slid into my head, yeah, he'd be there while I needed him and then once I was over it, he would distance himself. Maybe he was a believer in that damn quote of Abe Lincoln as well.

"I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let her down."

I could see that he was waiting for me to reply to him, but all I could do was nod my head at him before I made my way out of the apartment toward the elevator. As we were riding down inside the elevator, I realized that I'd had no reservations about getting inside, one thing I could take off of my list of fears.

Once on five I followed Ranger as he went into a room next to his office. It was okay I suppose, though it felt like a glorified large box because there were no windows. It was painted the same color as everywhere else, an off white, and had a desk, chair and small set of drawers. Down one wall was an enormous board that covered the entire length that provided the only color in the place. I had a computer, screen and printer so placed my papers next to those on the desk then opened the drawers to find printing paper and lots of different colored highlighters.

"I know it's a bit dark in here, Louis is looking at the possibility of putting a window in to let in some natural light"
"That's a lot of work. What was this used for before?"

"Mainly a storage area, but as an office for you it has potential"
Mmm, an office for me sounded like something a bit more permanent than a cubicle off the monitoring room. It still didn't qualify as saying I had a job here though so at some stage an apartment and job were still things I'd have to consider, but not at the moment. I had to get this current project completed first even if that meant that I didn't find anything. As I sat down Ranger left the room and closed the door behind him. It felt strange being here on my own and I missed the company of the men as they would pass my cubbie.

I pushed that thought to the back of my head as I started to reread the search that I'd done on Gary Stone, aka Jinski. The mention of his mother being an artist had me wondering what type of work she'd done and if it was anything like what Les had made me look at down in Washington. I found his mother's name, Jayne Stone, and re-opened the search I'd already done. While it loaded, I picked up the sheets already printed on Jinski and with a new highlighter pen started to mark off facts that were interesting, adding written notes in the margin.

Not long after his mother's death Jinski's father had reported him as missing. The problem that I was going to have was trying to fill in the missing part of Jinski's life, the last six years. The information just wasn't there so I assumed he'd used different names, and lived under the radar, which seemed unlikely or someone had erased his history. What did confuse me was how the FBI had identified him as the one responsible for the deaths of so many women.

The pinging from the computer told me that Jayne's search had loaded so I sent it to the printer and started to read through it. She'd been born in Washington to parents who were both doctors and ran their own private practice. I was surprised that Jayne had started a medical course but had then dropped out, but there wasn't much information on her until she'd married. She'd been 22 years old at the time and Jinski had been born within a year. It seemed she took up art after he'd been born, so out of curiosity I input her name, Jayne Stone and artist into Google, not surprised when nothing came up. Maybe like many artists she used a pseudonym.

I jumped when the door opened but immediately relaxed when I saw it was Ranger. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk and crossed one leg over his knee. He dropped a file onto my desk that I hoped held details from the FBI.

"FBI files?"
"Yes"
"Have you read through them?"
"Yes. Babe there are photos of the crime scenes, I don't want you looking at those on your own"
"They're bad?"
"Unsettling, especially when you read the autopsy reports"
"Well, how about I ask some questions first and you give me the answers"
"I can do that"
"Okay. What evidence was there that pointed to Jinski, sorry, can we agree to call him Jinski?"

"I agree, Jinski seems to have been the last name that he used. The FBI tied him to the last victim. They found a lens cap close to where the body was discovered that had his prints on"
"How did they know they were his prints, he didn't have a record?"
"No he didn't but his father reported him missing and the local police used prints from his room and DNA from a brush in case they needed to identify a body"

"Wow, I bet they thought they'd hit the jackpot with that. What else, there must have been more for them to be sure"
"They found his DNA on the body"
"Had he?"
"She had been assaulted but the DNA was from skin cells under her nails"
"So if they only found that evidence on the last victim why are they so sure he killed the others?"
"Same MO Babe. The women were killed by the same method, and there seemed to be other similarities"

"Do I want to know how they actually died?"
"Probably not"

"But you're going to tell me, aren't you?"

"They were pithed"
"Pithed?"
"It's is a technique used to immobilize or kill an animal by inserting a needle or metal rod into its brain"

That sounded horrendous, I mean that had to be a painful way to die didn't it? Why would someone do that?

"Babe, that was the main common theme that was picked up"
"Had they been hurt in other ways?"

"Difficult to say because the bodies were decomposed, but the files suggest that they had a finger removed and their skin had been slashed"

That was probably why he didn't want me to look at the photos. He knew I'd seen dead bodies before and I suppose some were a few days old, but maybe he was right when he thought that this was different, and I probably wouldn't want to see them.

"Is there anything else of interest?"

"Not really. They tried to find him but couldn't, his info was sent out to companies like us who are known for finding people. It was only when you sent that photo to Jack and he sent it to me that it was apparent that he'd surfaced"

"Coincidence then"
"Maybe"
"You know Jinski never had a chance to defend himself, he could have been set up to take the fall"
"Then we'll find that out won't we"

"Okay, can I have the file minus the gory parts for now?"

"That's what's in there. Now though we have a date in the gym"

Shit, I forgot about that completely, but thinking about it I was probably ready for a break.

"I need to change then"
"You're fine as you are"

I picked up the file he'd put on the desk and along with the papers I'd already printed out placed them behind the filing cabinet against the wall. I shrugged my shoulders at the look Ranger gave me, hell if someone were to nosey around the last place they'd look was on the floor between the cabinet and the wall.

Forty minutes later I was hot and sweaty, and my arms ached. On the positive side I knew how to bind my hands, how to position my feet and the right way of punching the bag. I have to say that Ranger made an excellent teacher, he was clear and concise with his instructions, almost formal really and he hardly touched me at all and stood away from me when talking. To be honest I was probably punching the bag harder because he was pissing me off. At the moment he was behind the bag holding it as I went for the next punch and I was getting more hyped up as I envisaged punching the bag hard enough to knock him off his feet.

I knew I was doing everything right so when I missed the bag completely, I couldn't understand why Ranger was standing in front of me, I mean it was there and suddenly it wasn't. I couldn't pull back from the momentum I'd gained so was counting on Ranger to move out of the way. All I saw was a flurry of movement, which was a good thing because my fist didn't come into contact with him. I don't think he quite anticipated just how much energy I'd expended on that punch because although my arm went over his shoulder to the right of his face, I was still moving, fast and hard and literally collided with him, my body slamming into his and us both careering to the floor.

I braced myself as the floor started to come up to meet me and felt myself spinning. I was totally surprised when it was Ranger who landed on his back with me on top of him. His head was laid back on the floor making me start to panic that I'd hurt him. It was the shaking of his chest that assured me that he was still alive but then I was sure I'd done some permanent damage as he began to laugh.

I was shocked, yeah totally shocked because I had rarely heard him laugh before, but then started to question what he was laughing at. It was at me, he found me funny, he probably thought that what had happened was because of something stupid that I'd done. I put my hands on his chest to push myself up, no way was I going to be his entertainment anymore. As I started to move his eyes shot open and he stopped laughing. He must have recognized that I was pissed off, but I didn't expect him to do what he did next.

My face was held in his large hands and he pulled me down to meet him. The kiss he gave me was nothing like it had been this morning, it was passionate and fierce as his mouth exploded on mine, taking my breath away. I couldn't resist him, I never had been able to, as he sought entrance to my mouth. All thought left me only to be replaced by a burning desire flowing through me, how could I stay mad at him when he kissed me like that. As he moved my face back a fraction, I'm sure it was me that moaned at the loss of contact. My forehead was resting on his as I fought for breath but with it the reason for being mad at him came back to me.

"Why are you so angry Babe?"
"You were laughing at me, I was trying so hard, but I'm still a joke"

"Look at me Babe"
I lifted my head slightly to look into his eyes, not recognizing the way he was looking at me.

"You blow me away Babe, when I think I have you figured out you do something so unpredictable. I was laughing because of how only you could knock me over"
"So not because I did something stupid?"
"No, Babe. You are amazing when you put your mind to it"
"I didn't mean to knock you over"
"I know, I moved the bag so I could show how to block a punch. You took me totally by surprise"
"Are you hurt?"

"Only my pride, I'm sure the guys on the monitors are having a laugh at my expense"

I had totally forgotten about the cameras down here in the gym and was dreading what some of the men would be saying. As I thought that, I heard the sound of the gym door slam open and footsteps heading our way.

"Ranger, man are you okay?"
"Ha, she knocked you off your feet"
I put my head down onto Ranger's shoulder, recognizing the voices.

"Les right?"
"Yes, with Bobby and Tank"
"Beautiful are you hurt?"

I felt myself being lifted to my feet, knowing that only Tank could do that and watched as Bobby knelt down next to Ranger.

"Did you hit your head Ranger?"

I almost laughed at how sincere Bobby sounded and could see he was really concerned for Ranger.

"Just help me up Bobby, I'm fine"

As Ranger got to his feet, I wasn't too sure that he hadn't hurt his back, hell the way he turned with me in his arms and landed I was surprised he could get up at all. I walked over to him and put my arm around his waist hoping he'd realize I was there to cover up his injury in front of the men.

"Okay boys, the show's over. It has got to be lunch time because I am feeling hungry"

That was enough for them to smile back at me and one by one they turned and started for the door. Ranger's arm came over my shoulder, so we started to follow them out. From the way Ranger used me to support him I knew I was right, and I knew he didn't want anyone to know. Thankfully we used the elevator and were soon inside the apartment, where I continued walking through to the bedroom, allowing him to slowly sink down. I knelt down on the floor next to him and ran my hand down his arm. I was so worried for him because I'd never really seen him hurt like this.

"Is it bad?"
"No, I think maybe I just twisted badly when we went down"

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you"
"I think we've already had this conversation"
"Do you need Bobby?"
"No, I just need to relax and then I'll stretch out and loosen up the muscles"

"Do you need anything?"

"Just lay with me for a while"

I could do that because it was very rare for Ranger to ask me to do something personal for him. I stood and went to the foot of the bed and untied and removed his boots before doing the same with mine. Then very carefully laid on my side next to him, surprised when his arm came under my head and he pulled me to him. It gave me the opportunity to just watch him, to look closely at his face. I could see the muscles relaxing and feel his breathing slow down. This was something I'd never really done before with any man. When I was with Joe, he was attentive to me during sex but afterwards he'd just roll onto his side with his back to me. There had never really been any times I could think of when we would lay together on the bed, to hold each other and I found that I liked the feeling of being so close to Ranger in a comforting way.

Movement from the muscles across his forehead distracted me making me wonder if he was still awake but as I lay my hand gently on his chest the movement subsided, it was as though he was dreaming, and my closeness was calming him. I hoped I had the power to do that for him in the same way as he could calm my demons when I slept. The last image I saw before closing my eyes was his beautiful face, the contours of his cheek bones and the long dark lashes resting against them.