Chapter 28

As soon as the door had closed, I used the code to reactivate the alarm and then just stood looking at the door. I felt totally deflated with what had happened and in some was also beginning to question what the hell I was doing here. I hadn't a clue who this man Dax was or what he was like.

Look at what had happened when I last trusted a man. Yeah, the thoughts took me back to Jack. He'd been someone that I felt comfortable around with no inkling of what he was capable of. What if Dax was the same, what if he thought I was easy prey as well? I should get away from here and disappear again. Yeah, like that had worked out so well the first time.

It did make me worry how those men had found me. I started to think of anyone who knew where I was. I was sure Jenna wouldn't say anything, but what if she'd been threatened, wouldn't she tell them whatever they wanted to know? Then there was Mandy, but I was sure she just saw me as some woman running from an overbearing boyfriend. Had she told her husband or partner?

Then there was Emma's mother, but I couldn't see how she would tell anyone about me. She wouldn't have a clue who I was, though she might have mentioned talking to someone in passing about some strange woman being at that site. No, I didn't think those men had found me through her. That brought me back to Dax.

I shoved the gun down the back of my pants and went through to the large lounge area, looking around to see if there might be any clues as to who he was. There was very little furniture to look through and all I found that might be useful was a large sharp carving knife. The fridge held nothing that appealed to me, but I was tempted with a frozen packet of pancakes. I read the instruction on the back of the pack and placed them in the microwave, helping myself to some jam that was in one of the cupboards.

I almost felt guilty when I noticed that it hadn't been opened but brushed that aside as the smell of the pancakes drifted through the room. I stood at the counter eating what I considered was breakfast, washing it down with a glass of water. Once I'd cleaned away, and put the jam in the fridge, I made my way back into the hallway. I tried the bedroom door that Dax had said was his room and found that it was in fact locked. I had to try it just in case some magic fairy had left it open for me.

I found myself in the bedroom that Dax had shown to me before he left and closed and locked the door behind me. It was a large room that was nicely decorated and again with minimum furniture. The color theme seemed to be a cream color, on all the walls, with a deep red carpet and matching blinds at the window. The large bed picked up on the red and cream theme, making me wonder if Dax had done his own decorating or brought someone in to do it. Maybe like Ranger sought out the help from Ella.

The first door I opened led into a large bathroom that contained both a shower and tub along with a sink and toilet. A shelving system held lots of towels and inside the cabinet above the sink was a choice of shower gels and shampoos. I was pleased to see a new toothbrush still in its plastic package next to new toothpaste. It made me wonder who Dax expected to be using the room. Did he have family who stayed here or even maybe a girlfriend?

I shrugged that from my thoughts as I looked down at what I was wearing. I probably needed to rinse through my shorts and tops before even thinking of sleeping and opened up a double door that held a closet. There was nothing on the shelves and the only item of clothing hanging up was a dark red robe. I slowly removed my sweatshirt noting the damage to it and decided that it would probably need throwing away, but not just yet.

As I continued to undress, I felt quite vulnerable without clothing on but knew that I needed to shower and wash my hair. I washed the clothes that were redeemable and then with a towel wrapped around me pulled the robe from the closet and tied the belt tightly around my waist. With the wet clothes in my hand I returned to the kitchen area to look for somewhere to dry my clothes. A door I hadn't noticed before revealed a small laundry room which is where I placed my wet clothes into a dryer.

I spent time flipping through channels on the TV not really interested in anything that came up. The only program I watched was the daily news and there was nothing that that suggested I was now being looked for countrywide. Not that the news would have that type of information anyway.

Once my clothes were dry, I redressed in the bedroom and wondered what to do next. I was feeling so tired as I looked at the bed but there was a fear still influencing my thoughts. I still wasn't sure whether to stay here, whether or not I was safe. The problem was that I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just call someone and ask them for help. I'd already done that with Owen and Jenna. In the end I decided that Dax would probably be away for a few hours at least, so maybe I could take a nap and be on my way before he came back.

I ensured the door was locked and then took the pillows and cover from the bed into the bathroom. The door was locked, and my new bed was in the corner behind the door. I did feel a little safer now as I pulled the cover over my head and settled my head on the pillows. Hopefully if anyone did get this far then they might think there was a bundle of linens that had been left on the floor. Otherwise the gun was in one hand and the knife in the other might be my last line of defense.

I came awake with a start, confused with where I was. The cover was wrapped around my legs and I felt chilled from the sweat that coated my skin. It was pitch black, with no light coming in from anywhere, something I hadn't really noticed when I fell asleep. The silence in the room was deafening making me wonder what had made me wake up. I didn't want to move to turn a light on in case it gave away to someone outside that I was in here. I lay without moving a muscle, well except for my eyes, that's how tense I was.

I realized I must have fallen asleep again because when I opened my eyes the next time, there was light coming in through the gaps at the top of the drapes. Weird really because I didn't think I'd dreamt anymore after I fell asleep the second time. In fact, I could have sworn that I'd gone to sleep in the bathroom. So why did it feel as though I was on a bed?

As I turned my head, I thought I must be dreaming, so I just continued to stare at the figure sat there. Maybe I was still asleep, and this was a dream, a dream that had Ranger sat on the chair watching me. I'm sure I was shaking my head as I saw him stand up and move toward me. The fear that he was here to take me to the police flared up inside me and I kicked my legs to get myself away from him, ending up leant against the headboard with my arms around my knees.

I felt tears falling down my cheeks as I inwardly cursed the dream, its cruelty in having Ranger here with me. I screwed my eyes shut hoping the illusion would disappear but then I was sure I could feel him now, feel the start of that tingle tingling at the base of my neck. I had never before felt so scared of what was going to happen.

"I didn't do it, I would never do that. You have to believe me"

"I believe you Babe. I couldn't find you. I'm so sorry you were left on your own"

My eyes flew open to see him crouched down next to me and I moved my hand and tentatively ran my hand down his cheek.

"Are you really here?"

"I'm here Babe"

I felt his arms go around me, as he lifted me to him and instantly my arms were around his neck. I couldn't help it, my emotions just erupted and suddenly tears were falling down my cheeks. My body was shaking as the all the pent-up emotions came to the surface. I felt his hand at the back of my head and of being rocked slowly back and forth.

"You're not here to take me to the police, are you?"

"No, never. I'm here because I needed to find you"

I had so many questions though that came into my head so wiping my eyes I tried to stop the crying.

"How, how are you here?"

"It's a long story"

"I have time"

He toed off his boots and crawled onto the bed, leaning against the headboard and then pulled me up and held me tightly.

"Okay, from the beginning. Your friend Owen. He insisted he spoke to Santos and threatened him if he didn't read your letter"

"Owen threatened Les?"

"Yes. After he read it, he called me"

"Oh"

"I didn't know how to feel when you disappeared, when your tracker just stopped working. Hector couldn't track you by your phone so assumed it was switched off. Then when I read the email, I had to think and get things into perspective. I listened to what Santos said and before I knew it, I'd started looking for you"

I felt fresh tears come to my eyes as I remembered that an email was going to be sent to Ranger.

"What did the email say?"

"That you'd made a mistake by staying close to me, that you'd reconsidered and were going back to Morelli"

"I'm so sorry"

"It wasn't your fault Babe"

"I thought you'd be annoyed with me"

"Why would you think that?"

"Hayes, they said they were going to use my gun and shoot him to make it look like I'd done it"

"Do you really think I would believe that?"

I thought that through for a moment, really thought it through. Why had I thought that Ranger would see me as guilty? He knew me better than any other person I knew and in the past we'd both believed what the other was saying. When the whole world said he'd killed Ramos I knew he wouldn't have done it, that he was innocent. So why would I think that he would believe that I was guilty now?

"Are the police looking for me?"

"Not now. I called in a coroner who knows what he's doing. The cause of death was bleeding out from a neck wound. The hole didn't match the damage that would have been caused by your gun. Then there's the fact that the autopsy proved that the shot from your gun happened post mortem and wasn't a kill shot"

"How did you find me?"

"Pure luck and chance"

"I don't follow"

"I was interviewing a man I know for a position at Rangeman today. Santos was carrying out his performance in the range and asked him when he last shot anyone, expecting it to be when he was on his last mission. The fact that he'd shot a man last night had Santos curious"

"He shot someone?"

I couldn't remember much from last night, well not after I'd been hit with that dart and fallen. Though I was dreaming of a shot being fired, but of course in my dream it was me shooting a man I couldn't see clearly and then Ranger falling. I always woke up seeing him on the floor of my hallway in my apartment and that's when I woke up screaming.

"Yes. He told Santos a story about a woman that he'd come across and how she looked frightened. Then rescuing her from two men chasing her. Of course, the first thought Santos had was you and when he showed Dax a photo of you, he knew we'd maybe found you"

"What did Dax tell you?"

Because I wasn't sure I wanted anyone to know how I'd stupidly got myself trapped on the top level of those ropes and how I ended up falling.

"He didn't want to tell us anything. He thought that we were the ones after you"

"Oh"

That meant that Dax was maybe a good guy then. I felt relieved to hear that he was going to protect me, even if it meant refusing to talk to Les.

"Santos brought him to me, and I had to spend a lot of time trying to convince him that we were trying to find you and protect you. There was no way I wasn't going to find you"

"Why, when all I do is cause you problems and trouble?"

"Until recently I just didn't realize how important you were to me. Watching you sleep gave me time to think through what I wanted to say to you"

"How long have you been here?"

"A few hours"

"You brought me out of the bathroom?"

"You looked uncomfortable and were dreaming"

"Oh"

"You did the right thing Babe. I was starting to think Dax had been lying to me as to where you were until I heard you"

"It just seemed the safest place to be"

"What happened Babe?"

"I got a message to go and pick up a parcel from my apartment. Hayes took me"

"Your things from Jack?"

"Yeah. My phone, keys and wallet with my id's in. Hayes, he drove his car, but he didn't bring me back to Rangeman like I asked"

"Why not?"

How did I word this without Ranger thinking it was my fault that we'd ended up at some seedy bar?

"He thought I would want to go with him for a drink"

"So he took you against your will?"

"Yes. He tried grabbing hold of me, but I got away and just ran. I even used my panic button"

"We never received the transmission"

"Anyway, he'd almost caught up with me when suddenly a shot rang out. Next thing I know he's on the ground bleeding out when a bullet hit the wall next to me. I panicked, and I must have dropped my gun. I managed to find a way out through a building and hid behind it. That's when I heard two people talking"

"Babe?"

I was close to crying again as I remembered what had been said and how frightened I'd been.

"That they'd send an email to you, so you'd leave. That they'd find me through my phone or bank withdrawals. Then they shot Hayes with my gun to make it look like I'd killed him"

I felt Ranger's arms come around me, holding me tightly to him. I felt like I was breaking apart, again, but I had to finish my story.

"I thought you'd leave and hate me, think I'd led Hayes on and then killed him"

"Babe it's okay. I wouldn't have left you"

"But you did"

"No. I never left you. The past few days that we we've had together had me questioning myself and I needed to clear my head and think through what I felt was important. Babe, remember what I said to you?"

"Which time was that Ranger? That I was entertainment?"

I saw him wince as I said that glad that maybe I'd hit a nerve, but I couldn't bring myself to repeat the other things that he'd said to me, it would hurt me too much for him to agree and reiterate each and every word.

"Babe, you light up my life and give me hope. I always said that I loved you and I do, but I didn't want to fall in love with a woman I could never have"

I thought through what he'd said. He didn't want to fall in love, so had he? Had he constantly pushed me away because he thought in the end that it wouldn't work out?

"Is the crazy life that I lead what you'd want? The white girl from the Burg playing with the big bad guys. I thought once the reality hit you, you'd run away scared. I honestly thought that Morelli was where you'd be best suited, but I was wrong"

Was he protecting his own heart in case I reverted to the typical Burg woman? A woman who might wake up one day and not like who she saw anymore, not like the danger or unpredictability of what it would be like to be with him. I had to make him believe that I wasn't that woman.

"What are trying to say Ranger?"

"A couple of weeks ago I left Trenton thinking that you'd given up on me and finally decided that Morelli was who you wanted to be with, but it was as though fate had a different idea and brought us together in Toronto. When we had problems with Briggs, having you living with me just seemed so right, so I needed time to think and in the end, I couldn't fight the need to have you with me. So I followed you down to Washington because I didn't want to lose you again. I'd follow you anywhere"

"So who were you protecting, you or me?"

"Both of us. To have a woman in my life is dangerous"

"But I bring all sorts of danger of my own"

"Yes, you do. I need to hear how you really feel. You can be easy to read but keep your emotions locked up tightly inside of you"

"You know I love you, don't you?"

"I know. Is it enough to understand what being with me would be like?"

"Yes. You let me fly but are there to catch me. I would never want to change anything about you"

"I would never want to change you either, your courage and endurance, your unpredictability and loving and open heart"

"You're not just saying this because you feel the need to keep saving me, are you?"

"No. I read your letter Babe. Don't blame Santos, I didn't give him a choice. I couldn't commit to you until I knew how you felt"

"I was the same, you gave me so many mixed messages that I couldn't let you break my heart"

"I had to, the work that I did was such that I might not come back. I couldn't have left you on your own grieving my death. That's all finished now, no more going in the wind"

"Is this real or am I still dreaming?"

"I'll show you just how real this is"

He tilted my chin up and looked into my eyes just before his mouth came down on mine. There was no teasing or tentative moves as our mouths locked together and we explored each other. Heat moved through me as I ran my hands through his hair, pulling the leather tie away to release his hair. I was totally unaware of anything else except for the two of us, pushing myself to him to be as close as possible.

A sudden movement had me being pushed down on the bed and Ranger swiveling with a gun in his hand, pointing it to the open door. I peeked a look around Ranger and a moment later Les was stood leaning against the door frame, both hands in the air, but smiling widely.

"Glad to see you two are eventually on the same page but us guys are freezing our buts off out here"

Ranger's gun went down to his side and I was sure I heard him sigh. Me? I think I was probably blushing, judging by the heat I felt on my cheeks. I sat up as Les walked in, surprised to see Hector and Tank follow. They sat on the side of the bed and so I moved my legs from under the covers to be able to have Ranger next to me with an arm around my shoulder, but I could see now from the guy's expressions that some serious talking was about to begin.

"Tank, report"

"Police have eventually shifted who they are looking at for Haye's murder, though I have to say Bobby deserves a pay rise for the shit he went through to get that coroner"

"Morelli?"

I had totally forgotten that I suggested to Ranger to keep an eye on Joe, though how the farce with Joe played into this I had no idea.

"Ram and Hal are on him now. The tracker we used on his car, so we'd know where he was, malfunctioned giving us false positions. So far, he's acting normal, going to work"

"Is he lead on the murder?"

"Yeah"

That totally surprised me and for some reason didn't make me feel any better.

"How?"

I was sure that where Hayes had been shot was outside of Trenton jurisdiction.

"Once they decided that it wasn't you the chief decided that it should be investigated by Trenton PD"

"He's bound to be at our doorstep soon"

I looked at Tank as he said that wondering how that would play out. I was sure that Joe would be elated at being able to barge into Rangeman in the guise of a detective following up on leads. Would he be able to question everyone and search the building? Would he insist on access to all areas, including Ranger's apartment? He'd get a shock if he searched through the closet and found my clothes inside. That didn't worry me at all, but how it would affect Joe did. He'd be annoyed and pissed and hate Ranger and Rangeman even more.

"Hector"

"I found a worm that was in the system that would account for the back door into the programs. I think somehow, they got information on our trackers, which was maybe how they found you, Estefania, and blocked it from us. We can't afford for any more intrusions. The whole system, including the other offices, is now secure. The email, well that was bounced all over the world through various addresses so no way yet to find the origin. I checked your accounts Estefania and somehow someone has put an alert on them when they are used, I left those in place. My thinking is that we can use them to find their location, though that would mean you using your card and that could be dangerous."

I listened as Hector spoke, I already knew what he was going to say. I suppose I agreed with him in leaving the alerts in place, that way they wouldn't know what we knew or how we knew but I was so pleased that Rangeman was now secure, especially the whereabouts of any trackers.

"Babe, are you okay to tell us what happened?"

I nodded my head but looked down at my hands playing with the corner of my sweatshirt.

"I overheard someone say there was a boss who wouldn't be pleased that they hadn't caught me."

"Beautiful what happened after Hayes was killed?"

"I got a message to Owen. He picked me up and we ended up meeting up with Jenna, his fiancé. I gave him that letter to deliver because I wanted you to know the truth"

"We already knew Beautiful"

"Jenna has a friend who runs an adventure center, so she arranged for Mandy to meet me. I was there the whole time"

"Dax said he was there helping to supervise some kids and saw you"

"Yeah, he kinda surprised me"

"Santos did you bring some clothes for Steph?"

"Yeah, I'll go get them"

I watched as Les left the room and as Hector and Tank left as well. I was wondering where Dax was and if he knew that Ranger and the guys were here.

"Where is Dax? Did you give him a job?"

"He's at Rangeman going over things with Bobby"

"Bobby?"

"Dax is a field medic and a dam good one, but there was an incident on his last mission. The man they were sent in to rescue was deranged and he ended up grabbing a gun from one of the soldiers. When Dax tried to check him over, he was shot in the leg"

"So he's had enough?"

"You could say that. He's lost a bit of confidence"

I remembered when Dax had said that phrase that Bobby always said to me and had thought that it was weird. When he'd checked me over, he'd been quite hesitant in how he'd handled my head and arm and he hadn't even looked at my hip.

"Beautiful?"

I looked up to see Les placing a bag on the bed in front of me and then walking out of the room.

"Thanks"

"Dax agreed that we could come here and talk to you"

Maybe that made sense, but I was sure that Ranger had been very persuasive and didn't give him a lot of choice. I leaned forward and opened the bag to see what clothes had been brought, it would be good to change into something else, so I started taking some things out. I felt Ranger moving his hand over the shoulder that got hurt and playing his finger through the hole.

"Did Dax check you out?"

"Yeah, it's just bruised"

"What about your hip?"

"Same"
"Maybe Bobby can have a look back at Rangeman"

I didn't reply, instead I picked up the clothes and went through to the bathroom. I was aware of how much my shoulder and hip were aching, but I didn't want Ranger to be worried about me, so I walked slowly but made sure I wasn't limping.
As I washed my face and looked in the mirror, I couldn't believe how bad I looked. There were scratches down the side of my cheek, probably from branches as I'd run through the trees. My skin was pale which only seemed to make the dark circles under my eyes more pronounced and there was the beginning of a bruise on my forehead.

Of course, my hair didn't help but once tied back it didn't look too bad. I picked up the clothes that I had brought through from the bedroom and was sure they were new clothes, no doubt bought by Ella. The bra and panties were beautiful with lace trimming the edges, but I was surprised that the blue hipster jeans were quite loose fitting. A cream T-shirt completed the look before slipping on some black pumps onto my feet. As I passed Ranger still sat on the bed, he caught my hand and pulled me down to sit across his knee.

"Don't hide from me how you are feeling. I can tell that those bruises are hurting. Your eyes tell me that you're not sleeping very well. Are you still having nightmares?"

I nodded my head not daring to look up into his face. I felt slightly embarrassed, but more than that I felt that it made me look weak. I felt his finger under my chin, lifting it until I had no choice but to look at him.

"I'm here for you now, I don't like to see you hurting"

I blinked my eyes as I looked into his, the sincerity of what he was saying so evident. He lifted me to my feet as he stood but then his arms were around my waist.

"You feel thinner, even more toned. What were you doing to make that happen?"

"I, err, started going to one of the rope sites"

"How did you mange?"
"It was hard at first but in the end, I could do all of the challenges"

"Is that where Dax found you?"

"Yeah. The night those men found me I stupidly went onto the higher sections thinking they wouldn't follow me. That's how I got hurt when I got hit with a dart and fell"

"Proud of you Babe. Those aren't that easy to complete"

That in itself made the pain and frustration so worthwhile. I turned and with my hand in his we carried on through to the lounge area, finding all of the guys sat on the couch and chairs. Ranger sat down on a smaller couch and pulled me with him to sit down next to him, our bodies touching from hip to shoulder which gave me a little strength for might be coming next.

"Did you bring that file Santos?"
"Yes. Only you Beautiful would hide it somewhere like that"

"Babe I think that maybe those people after you have something to do with Jinski and the deaths of those women. I'm really not sure though why they are focused on you. Maybe we need to start at where we think this started and then look more intensely at those areas you were doing the searches on"

The beginning, where would that be exactly? Was it when Jinski was shot or sooner than that?

"Beautiful start from when you brought in Briggs, we know the work you'd done before that, everyone does. Owen published the outline in the paper"

"I suppose that was when I first met Jack. I made sure the figurine that Briggs had stolen went back to him"

"How did you come to meet him, Little Girl?"

"I spoke with the owner and he said that a Mr Richards was handling everything. Once Briggs was in the station, I called Mr Richards to meet me at the station so I could give him the figurine"

"What then Beautiful?"

"That night was the hostage incident and I was in work the next day"

"Babe we know what happened next. How did you end up working with Jack?"

"He turned up at my apartment the day after I'd slept and asked if I wanted to work as part of his team"

"Who else was in the team?"

"I only knew first names. Jack and Luke who seemed to be running things. Then there was Liam and a woman called Megan. Oh, and Jack mentioned they had someone who was good with computers. I never did know who that was"

"Beautiful what happened with Hayes?" I looked over to Ranger because I'd already told him the story and wasn't too sure if he wanted me to tell the others. I saw as he nodded his head so started my side of the story.

"He, err, thought I might like to go out for a drink with him"

"He was hitting on you?"

"I think so. He was so damn arrogant"

I looked to each man once I'd finished, hoping they'd have something to say. I felt better now everyone knew what had happened and it suddenly hit me, I'd been so stupid not trying to get word to Ranger.

"I'm sorry, but I was scared that maybe there were still problems at Rangeman and that they could use the systems to trace my call"

"Little Girl, you did what you felt was best. We can understand why you did it. You were frightened they could find you and then there was the issue of how Hayes died"

When no one said anything else, my mind went back to the contents of the file that Les had brought and the work I'd done while I was at the cabin.

"I think those files hold the way to solve this"

"Ranger, I, err, started some work while I was away"

"How?"

"Well it was weird, but I think I met the mother of one of the victims"

"Where were you?"

"Tokeneke, or somewhere near there"

"What did you find out Babe?"

"Not much, but it gave me some ideas to work on"

"How far did you get with finding information Estefania?"

"A list of women who were murdered" "How the hell did you do that?"

"I researched Tank. Newspaper articles for unsolved cases and then narrowed it down"

"Babe how many names did you narrow it down to?"

I felt sure that Les was trying not to take the piss out of me, but the way he was smiling started to get me annoyed. I knew the original list had been enormous, in fact it made me sick just thinking about how many there were, but neither was I stupid like Les was implying. I felt Ranger tense beside me and watched as the smile on Les's face dropped. Ranger wasn't amused at what Les had implied either.

"I think I got it down to 8"

"The FBI only tied 5 deaths to Jinski"

"Santos we'll look at the ones Steph has found. Where's your information Babe?"

"I set up an email account and sent it there, but I'll need to do some more searches"

"That may not be possible to do through our normal ways yet Estefania. I need to make sure we are totally secure"
I could understand what he meant, that any use of the search program could alert someone's attention to what we were doing and could eventually lead them to me. The thing was that Rangemans normal methods were to use search programs, my normal method was to hit the streets and talk to people.

"I see what you mean Hector, so how about we do what I would normally do?"

"Babe?"

"We look at those files and we go and talk to people"

"Makes sense to me, but it will take time Babe. Tank is Bobby at Rangeman?"

"Yeah, I left him in charge. What are you thinking?"

"We don't want to attract too much attention by us all being out of town, plus I have a feeling Morelli will be paying us a call sooner rather than later"

"About Haye's murder?"
"I'm sure he'll love the idea of officially barging into Rangeman"

I wasn't too sure what Joe would do but I did know that he didn't like Ranger. Yeah, he worked with him when it was necessary but other than that, Joe held no respect for Ranger or Rangeman either. I was actually worried that Joe might falsify information just to get at Ranger. I was so busy thinking about that, that I hadn't noticed when Tank and Hector had left. Les was looking through papers that I assumed were from the file so seeing as they were occupied, I decided that maybe now was the best time to find something to eat.

I was stood just looking through the cupboard when I heard someone behind me, turning I saw that it was Les.

"What's wrong Beautiful?"

"I'm hungry"

He laughed as he opened the fridge and pulled out a large pot, I could have sworn that hadn't been there earlier. "Ella"
That made sense though I was surprised that food had been brought and that they intended to stay a while. Les placed the pot into the microwave while I got three plates down from the cupboard. As we set things out on the table, I could tell that Les was hovering, so I turned to stand in front of him determined to find out what was wrong.

"Les?"

"I'm sorry Beautiful. For what I implied earlier, I know how good you are at picking up details. That you managed to find out who those women were, was above amazing"

"It's okay Les. I know it was a long shot, but I did spend hours going through them"

"You did good Beautiful"

I smiled as he said that because it made me feel more confident in myself, it was a similar feeling I got when Ranger said he was proud of me. It was quite late afternoon by the time we'd finished eating and clearing away the dishes and to be honest I felt tired. I was surprised when Ranger handed me some pills and a glass of water and to be honest, I was a bit dubious about what they were.

"They're anti-inflammatory, for your hip and shoulder. You probably should have had ice packs on them"

I swallowed the pills and finished the water before handing the glass back to him.

"I'm going to lay down for a while, I'm really tired"

I had no idea where Les was and just assumed he was maybe outside checking that there were no unwanted visitors lurking around. Ranger walked with me to the bedroom, though I wasn't sure why, but when he wrapped his arms around me, I was glad he had.
"I won't be long. I need to check in with Tank and get a report, then I'll check that Santos is okay"

"Where is he?"

"Keeping watch outside"

As his hold on me continued I felt his mouth next to my neck so I turned my head until I could sweep my mouth over his. A hand came to the back of my head as he deepened the kiss, a kiss that was gentle but so filled with passion. My left arm was trapped by his, but it didn't stop my hand from reaching up and running my hands through his hair. I was rubbing my body against his, the heat from his touch igniting me in a way that only Ranger could do. I felt his mouth leave mine and let out a sound in disappointment.

"Babe, you're hurt. We can wait for the right moment"

I know I was disappointed, but I also knew he was right. I felt my chin being lifted and felt his soft lips on mine.

"Get some sleep while I get some things sorted out"

I stripped down to my underwear and pulled back the covers. Once in the bed it didn't take me long to fall asleep and it didn't take long for the dreams to invade my mind. It was faces that came to me, Jack and Jinski, Hayes and Joe all of them trying to get me to go with them, shouting at first but then becoming aggressive.

In the dream I could manage that by giving back as good as I got but not when I suddenly found Jack laid above me. I pushed and shoved and started to run finding myself back on that rope activity. This time though when I fell, I watched from above as I landed, seeing Ranger laid next to me in a pool of blood. I woke with a start and was immediately awake, looking around the room. I knew no one was with me but it didn't take away the last shuddering breath that I brought with me from the dream. A look at the clock by the bed told me I'd only been asleep for an hour. I was still tired but had no intention of sleeping again.

Once I'd freshened up and redressed, I wandered through to the lounge. There was no one here which surprised me, but I knew they wouldn't be far away. I found some fresh orange juice in the fridge and poured some into a tall glass then looked around. The file that Les had brought was lying on the table so I picked it up and stood in front of the window looking down toward the sea.