Chapter 57

SPOV

"I said put your hands on your head"

Came from beside me so as I moved my hands together, I was trying to find the button on the side of my watch.

"Take the watch off lady, everyone take off your watches and jewelry"

The gun was now pointed directly at me now with the man staring down at me and I knew I really didn't want to get shot again. I looked over to where Hector had been and saw him sat on the floor, leant against the wall.I could see that he was watching me and noticed as he nodded his head ever so slightly at me. Another man was walking amongst the other customers and nudged the end of his shotgun on Hector's arm. Seeing Hector remove his watch and throw it onto the floor I did the same. I was sure that he would have had time to activate a panic button to let Rangeman know that we were in trouble so they'd be on their way here soon. As my watch went on the floor my attention was caught by the gunman closest to me. He'd grabbed hold of a little boy, who had been stood behind me with his mother, and pulled him to his his feet.

"Pick up the watches and jewelry kid, empty any bags and then put any phones and wallets into this garbage bag"

I could see that the young boy was scared as he started to do what he'd been told, he kept looking to his mother I think hoping that she could do something to help. I thought the best way out of this was to just do as the thieves wanted so there'd be less chance of them getting annoyed and hurting someone.I watched as my bag was tipped upside down and as the man whispered something to the kid. My phone and wallet went into the black garbage bag along with my watch. Hell, I'd only had that watch for a few days.

At least with my watch with them the thieves wouldn't get very far, Rangeman could find them through the tracker. As the boy and the man approached Hector, I sensed that the man with the shotgun was getting nervous. He was constantly looking around as though he expected something to happen. All of a sudden, the butt of his gun came down onto the top of Hector's head. Everyone seemed to make a noise and one of the other women began crying, loudly.

"Why the hell did you do that?"

The two men were now bending over Hector with one of them seeming annoyed at what his partner had done.

"Look, he's carrying"

Hector looked to be unconscious and the shotgun man pulled up Hector's jacket and took out two guns from the back of his trousers.

"Fuck, he's Rangeman. Why the hell was he here?"

Both of the men started to look around and both sets of eyes landed on me. I tried to look away, down at my feet, anywhere but at the two men. I didn't think that I knew them or had brought either one of them in as FTAs but then again with those stupid disguises they were wearing it would be hard to identify them.

"Shit, that's Manoso's woman"

I cringed as that was shouted out across the room. Why would they know as that and did that make it worse or better for me? How the hell did things like this happen to me? All I wanted to do was check how much money I had in my account. Why did they have to choose now to rob the bank, well they weren't exactly robbing the bank just the customers. Why would they do that, surely there were better places to find people with money or valuables. I didn't dare keep looking at the men and wasn't sure whether being identified as Manoso's woman was a good thing or not. Though that meant that they were probably from near Stark Street where that rumor was put about and they know that they would be in deep shit when Ranger caught up with them.

"What're we gonna do?"

"Go with the plan"

My mind went overboard trying to work out what their plan would be so in the end I started to look around the place wondering if there was any way that help was on its way.

I hadn't noticed that the door to the side of the room was slightly open, in fact I was pretty sure that it hadn't been before. I was just praying that it was a rescue mission and no one else would get little boy was handing the bag to one of the men so he'd probably collected all the valuables from everyone in the room. His mother burst into tears as he was pushed back toward her so all we could do was wait now. My hands were sweating with the tension that I was feeling but I didn't dare move in case I attracted their attention. My mind went to what Cassie had told me when I felt stressed but to be honest I just didn't have in me to relax. I was in fight or flight mode and with that adrenaline coursing through me decided I needed to stay alert.

"Everyone stand up"

Was shouted across the room, making me jump, so after looking at each other we all started to stand up. I wasn't the only one to feel stiff with sitting so long and as I moved to my knees I looked over to where Hector was seeing that he still seemed to be unconscious and couldn't believe what one of the men was doing with Hector. He must have had a spare hat and mask because he was putting them onto Hector. Did he really think that the police or Rangeman would fall for that? That had me wondering why they were doing that unless their plan was to walk out with the rest of the on my feet both of the gunmen were now behind me but even as I turned to look I felt a push on my shoulder.

"Everyone move to the door"

I was with everyone else as he said that, trying to work out how there were more people here than there had been before. Hadn't there only been four people behind me, the other woman at the till and me? Those people were all in front of me so how was it that there was someone behind me then? I didn't dare look and jumped as the man with the shotgun knocked out an elderly man in front of me. People were getting anxious, scared of what would happen next so when the door opened, and someone shouted "Run" that's what we did. Being almost the last to leave I watched as the robbers pulled off their hats and masks. They were ahead of me and were soon running out of the door hidden amongst the other customers.

The sun was bright as I stepped toward the door but that wasn't what had me feeling suddenly unsteady on my feet. I felt a touch to the back of my neck and only had time to think, what the fuck, before the world went dark in front of me.

It wasn't a strong zap but had me totally disorientated and unable to say or do anything. I was aware of being picked up, of the feel of the sun on my face and voices, so many voices.

"Wife"

"Fainted"

"Home"

Came to me as I tried so hard to understand what was happening. Maybe I must have fainted because that was the last that I could actually remember.

My next sensation as I started to wake up was of being somewhere familiar. I'm sure I groaned as I opened my eyes and recognized where I was. Something warm and wet was against my hand and looking down I was met with the warm brown eyes and orange coat of Bob. I ruffled his head with my hand, acknowledging that he was there and then looked up from where I was. I wasn't too sure whether to feel scared or not, I suppose the familiarity of where I was had unnerved me.

I was laid down on the couch in Joe's lounge but what had a sudden fear come over me was the profile of a man with a beard and hair sticking out all over the place. I had no idea who it was and for an instant actually worried that Joe was alright. Thinking of where I was totally confused though and I had no idea why someone would bring me to Joe's house. As the figure turned toward me, I recognized immediately who it was, though was totally surprised at his appearance.

His hair was long and disheveled, while his clothes seemed to hang from his body. The skin of his face seemed almost grey but it was the eyes looking back at me that worried me the most. They were dull and bloodshot and to be honest held a certain madness within them.

"Good to see you awake Cupcake"

Joe speaking to me brought me to the reality of where I was and who was with me but of course my curiosity needed to be sated and with that any feeling of fear left me.

"Why the hell am I here?"

"I saved you"

I'm sure that I rolled my eyes at hearing him say that. Hell, I hadn't needed saving because we were already on our way out of the bank with the thieves walking away with us. That had me wondering though how he was even there and if he knew that I was there.

"How were you even there?"

"I had a meeting with the manager to take out a loan. Do you know that the bastard refused me?"

"Why would you need a loan?"

Because I knew that although he'd been suspended that he was still on full pay.

"To get away and start somewhere fresh"

Okay, that could be the answer, but it just didn't gel with me. I watched as he removed his jacket to see the usual T-shirt and jeans underneath and then as he picked up an overnight bag. Did I dare to hope that he was just going to leave me here?

"Thank you for saving me Joe, but to be honest those gunmen had let us go"

"I wasn't saving you from them, I was saving you from being held by those thugs"

When was Joe going to get it through his thick head that I wanted to be with Ranger at Rangeman. Did he really think that I was stupid enough to be thankful to him, that I was some sort of damsel in distress who fell for my rescuer?

"Come on Cupcake, up you get. We have some travelling to do"

I just stared at him, amazed that he would think I'd just do as he said but then looked down to his hand to see a stun gun being held. I really didn't want to be stunned again, being unconscious with Joe was something that actually had me being afraid of him.

I slowly brought my feet to the floor, trying to assess how I felt. My head wasn't feeling dizzy and my muscles seemed to be working, but Joe didn't need to know that. I used the armrest of the couch and slowly stood, as though I was still suffering from the aftereffects of being stunned. As Joe moved his hand toward me, I flinched and tried to step to the side. That was a bad move because before I knew it his hand was holding my arm in a vice like grip.

"No games. It's all set up. Your mother is meeting us and then we can be together just as it's meant to be"

I stared at him, really stared, wondering how he could be so fucking stupid. I was more annoyed now than anything else. Was that why he kept visiting her, to plan some way for this to happen.

"You know that it's you she's after, don't you Joe?"

I watched as he just looked at me as though I were mad.

"Didn't you know Joe? She had an affair with your father and got pregnant. She lost the baby boy and then after me couldn't have any more. You were born when that baby should have been"

"So what? That's history, even if it's true"

"She wants you to be the son that she lost, the little Morelli boy. That's why she wants you to marry me, so she'll have that son"

I knew I was almost screaming at him by now putting every ounce of venom that I could into my words. It had the desired effect on him though, seen by the way he tilted his head to one side. When the grip on my arm released, I actually thought that he was starting to see the truth. Until that hand backhanded me across the face. I fell against the side of the couch and onto my knees, a hand on my face and the other on the seat of the couch.

"I don't care what she thinks. You have managed to screw up my life. You have managed to get me suspended because of your interfering as usual. Now it's my turn to do the same to you"

I saw his leg swing back and his foot come toward me, and tried to brace for the impact of being kicked, I knew I couldn't get out of the way quickly enough. It never came because out of nowhere a figure in black rushed at him and knocked him to the floor. I lost sight of them both as they fell over the back of the couch and could hear the ensuing sound of punches being delivered. I couldn't bare for Ranger to be arrested for murdering Joe and even though I was so relieved at the sight of him I was still worried. As I pulled myself up the figure in black that I had assumed was Ranger stood up and turned to face me.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked at the face of the man who had been there when I was hurt so much and was sure that I was whimpering words out loud.

"No, please, not again. Please don't hurt me"

As he stepped toward me, I stepped back, tears falling from my eyes.

"I'm not here to hurt you"

Was what I thought I heard but I just knew that I'd misunderstood. I collapsed onto my knees, the shaking and fear taking over. My chest began to hurt, and I clasped my fists together in front of me, as though trying to stop myself from breathing so hard. I was aware of him kneeling down in front of me and tried to crawl away from him. My back hit the edge of the coffee table, the feeling of being trapped becoming overwhelming. A touch to my cheek had me jerk my head away and then I heard a very unusual sound.

The sound of Parker sighing.

"We have to get out of here before that asshole wakes up"

It was then that I realized that it had been Parker who had attacked Joe. I wanted to ask why he was here but decided that I might not like the answer that he gave me. The fact that I had no idea of what would happen next had me shut down everything that I was thinking, deciding that if I didn't ask then I didn't have to know the answer.

I was surprised when Parker scooped me up from the floor and that he used the door at the back of the kitchen. There was a new car parked in the back lane whose blinkers flashed as we approached. I had no idea what make it was, but it looked pretty expensive to me. I was sat in the front seat and had the seat belt fastened around me. Even as I made a grab for the handle Parker was inside the car and took hold of my arm to stop me.

"I have no intention of hurting you. I just need to talk to you. Please"

Having Parker say please like that reminded me of how Ranger would resort to the word when he really needed me to do something that he asked. Before I knew what was happening the car was accelerating away and looking out to my side, I knew that we were heading out of the Burg. He drove fast as the car took corners at speed and he started to do what I knew was defensive driving, in other words he was making sure that we weren't being followed. It also meant that I hadn't a hope in hell of opening the door and escaping. We were travelling too fast and I wasn't too sure how landing on the road would impact on the injury to my chest.

Being inside the cocoon of the warm interior should have been comfortable but I was far from feeling that. I had no idea if Ranger knew where I was or who I was with and seeing as I had no trackers on me doubted that he'd be able to find me that easily.

It was as those thoughts went through me that I knew I was on my own now and I resolved that one way or another I would survive this. I had to, the love of my life loved me, we were planning our someday, I couldn't lose that now.