Chapter 67
SPOV
I woke from a deep sleep feeling a warm body wrapped behind me. Where I was felt familiar and yet not, weird really. As I opened my eyes, I looked at the drapes that were hung up and immediately knew where I was. Why was I in my apartment, why not in Ranger's apartment?
I remembered clearly what had happened yesterday, hell, it almost felt surreal, thinking through what had happened and what I had done. The person who we were the most concerned about was dead, I was sure of that. That had some unwanted thoughts go through my head as I again questioned why I was here in my apartment. Hadn't Ranger asked me to move in with him? Or was that only for the time that he thought I was in danger? Now that the danger was over, was he sending me back here?
I felt a slight movement on my hip and knew that touch as Ranger's hand so very carefully tried to turn over without waking him. Of course, there was no chance of that happening and as I lay on my back I watched as his eyes opened. The relaxed features of his face changed as he looked down at me.
"Babe?"
I hadn't realized that I was maybe scowling or looking a little worried but his one word saying my name implied that he knew something was wrong.
"Why are we here?"
I might as well come straight out with what I was worried about with that worry ratcheting up a notch as he sighed. I immediately regretted asking because that meant that he would be telling me the truth. I wasn't sure that I was ready for the truth just yet.
"Our apartment, well let's just say that it's definitely seen worse than here"
I had no idea what he was talking about and couldn't even make a guess at what he meant.
"You're gonna have talk me through that because I have no idea what you mean"
"There was an explosion at Rangeman and it was on the roof above our apartment. It did a hell of a lot damage so we couldn't stay there. There were no free apartments so here seemed as good as anywhere"
I almost let out a sigh of relief, almost until I considered how badly damaged this place had been in the past.
"It's worse than I've had it here?"
"We would have been sleeping under the stars Babe, with no bathroom and very little kitchen"
That warm fuzzy feeling came through me as his words "Our apartment" stayed in my mind like a neon light and I reached up my face to his to kiss him on the jaw. I snuggled into his side wanting that warm feeling to continue for longer and had almost fallen asleep when I suddenly remembered that we must have left the warehouse before I knew what else had happened. My head came up as my eyes opened wide.
"Ehsan?"
I could see it in his eyes as he looked down at me and knew straight away that the news wasn't going to be good.
"He wasn't there"
Okay maybe my eyebrows shot up at what he'd said, but how could they not have found him? Had someone else got to him first and made him disappear?
"I think that he managed to somehow get out"
"But he was hurt"
"Babe, he'd have someone he could use to get patched up"
I felt disappointed that he was gone, so sue me, I was actually starting to like the guy.
"The area that he lived in had been destroyed, I'm sure to cover his tracks"
Okay I could understand that Ehsan would always have an escape plan in case he was ever found but it did leave me feeling a bit sad. Then I remembered what had happened in that elevator and those intense feelings of having killed Calhoun came down on me. I was trying really hard to push them away with the words that Hector had said to me when he gave me that knife.
"It seems Calhoun died when the elevator crashed down"
"Yeah, right"
Came from my mouth because I knew he hadn't just died, I'd killed him. I felt Ranger move and watched as he leant over to get something from the cabinet next to the bed and to say I was shocked at what he held in hands as he turned back to me was an understatement.
"Hector brought this up for you"
"But?"
In his hand was the knife that had been sticking out of Calhoun's chest, the one that I was responsible for killing him with. I had tears in my eyes and felt hands holding my face, forcing me to look into Ranger's face.
"Babe. It was an accident, I know that you would never kill anyone, not unless you had to. No one knows what happened, or that you were even there. Hector replaced your knife with a metal spike from the elevator. As far as anyone is concerned, he died when the elevator fell from an explosion that he had detonated"
Could I accept that, would my conscience let me? I thought through what Calhoun was trying to do and knew that he'd wanted Ehsan dead and would have taken Ranger away from me. That was enough to know that what had happened was for the best and that the heart ache from losing Ranger would have been far harder to bare, if not impossible.
"As long as you are here with me then I'll accept that. I'll need to thank Hector though"
Thinking about Hector I remembered that Ava had been at the site when Ranger had taken me to the car.
"What happened to Ava?"
"I have no idea. Tank said that Wilt turned up and secured the site, keeping the police out of the loop. He took the men away, but no one mentioned seeing her"
That was a shame because she'd obviously been coerced into doing something that she didn't want to do. I just hoped that she was safe and back to her life. I snuggled into Ranger's side wanting that warm feeling to continue for longer which is how I must have ended up back to sleep.
I woke to the feel of kisses on my face, knowing that it was Ranger, and opened my eyes slowly to see him sat on the edge of the bed with a coffee in his hands. Turning I sat up against the pillow and took the mug from his hands inhaling the deep rich smell of coffee as it wafted up from the mug. I knew I frowned because it was a smell that I recognized, and the coffee didn't have any milk in it. For a moment I thought of Ehsan and that he was here.
"Ella sourced some out and sent it over with some breakfast"
Dampening that idea. As I continued to drink, I noticed that Ranger was dressed in jeans and a black sweater making me wonder what he planned for today. I knew there were some clothes still here in my apartment and it was then that I realized that I hadn't felt panicked at the thought of being here. No faces came to me from my memories to haunt me, so I smiled to myself, proud of myself for feeling so steady. Looking up again at Ranger I could see that he'd been watching me closely, maybe worried at how I might be feeling.
"What are the plans for today?"
Not really knowing what I was going to be doing now. The bad guys had gone and weren't a threat anymore yet the idea of just returning to what had been normal didn't sit well with me.
"We have some places to look at"
"Places?"
Because I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Places for us to live"
I liked the idea of that and that I was involved in any decisions even better. Handing the empty mug back to Ranger I scooted from the bed and dashed into the bathroom to shower. undressing out of a black T-shirt I noticed some small bandages on my arms and legs so removed them finding just small scratches and cuts. Probably all of them from the events that took place at Ehsan's building. The cut on the back of my left arm seemed deeper bringing back the memory of Calhoun raising his knife as though to strike me. As that went through my mind, I knew that his death wasn't on me, that I couldn't be blamed. He deserved everything that he got.
Being back in the dingy room made me appreciate the shower at Rangeman so I showered quickly using the products that had been left here. That made me wonder if we'd be here for a while if the apartment on seven was wrecked. If so then I'd have to move things over here. Sighing at that idea I went back through to an empty bedroom and saw some clothes laid out on the bed, sure I recognized the make but also seeing the new labels hanging off them. Ella, I decided, she really did think of everything.
Once dressed in black jeans and a pale yellow sweater, I found Ranger sat down at my old dining room table with a covered domed sat in the middle of the table. Seeing as Ranger already had what looked like bark twigs in a bowl in front of him, I assumed the covered plate was all for me.
"Mmm, pancakes"
As I served some out, I had an awful thought come to me.
"If we find somewhere to live can Ella come with us?"
The "Babe" I got in reply told me that wouldn't be happening. I knew that Ella prepared a lot of meals to go out, but I didn't think that living on pre prepared meals would work and my kitchen skills weren't ready to take on that domestic role. In fact the whole idea of being domesticated didn't sit well with me. I stopped my eating thinking about that suddenly pondering exactly how this new place to live would work out.
"Babe"
I looked up to see Ranger watching me with a slight smile on his face.
"I don't want to tie you to being a housewife anymore than you do. We'll hire someone for that"
I wasn't too sure if that was a dig at me or not so chose to ignore it and finished my breakfast.
We were soon leaving the apartment and heading downstairs in the elevator to walk out to the car. Once inside the Porsche Ranger was soon driving onto the main street. For some reason I was looking around and in the side mirrors because I was suddenly feeling on edge.
"Are you okay Babe?"
"I don't know. I think because we're on our own I suddenly feel vulnerable. I'm not used to being out and about or not having a team shadowing us"
"I know how you feel, but the bad guys are all gone now. Well at least for now"
Did I give a glare, you bet I did. But knew what he meant. I ran through my head the people that had been after us, Beth and her brother Andrew, Jari, Isaac and Calhoun, were all dead now. The people who'd been involved like Sophia, Barnes and Kendal were in prison which left me with Morelli and my mother. I knew that my Mum was being treated somewhere and that hopefully Morelli would be in prison as well.
"Will I have to testify at any trials?"
I could tell that Ranger was surprised at what I was asking, probably because he didn't know where my thoughts had taken me.
"No. There's enough evidence against them not to involve you"
"What about Morelli?"
"His lawyer has asked for his trial to be transferred out of Trenton to avoid any backlash from locals. Having you testify wouldn't do his cause any good and again there's enough evidence to send him away for a very long time"
Okay, I could live with that as long as I never had to see him again. In fact, I didn't want to see my mother again and wondered how that would work out. I wasn't feeling too optimistic that she wouldn't be back because I was sure that any charges would have diminished responsibility branded next to her name. If she seemed to get better would I want to see her, would my father have her back? I had no idea about that. Somehow, I doubted that she'd ever recover from a mental health illness because she'd been living with it for so long.
The car stopping brought me to my senses and I found myself looking onto the frontage of a large house. We were at the end of a short drive that had a grassed area on each side. As Ranger opened my door a pretty woman stepped through the front door and smiled at us as she welcomed us.
"Mr Manoso, Mrs. Manoso. Welcome to this house. I'm sure you're going to love it"
I was about to correct her with my name when I felt Ranger's breath in my ear.
"I like the sound of that, Mrs. Manoso"
A wave of electricity shot down from my neck south, though I wasn't sure if it was his breath on my ear or that he liked the sound of what I'd been called.
Two hours later I was feeling a bit shell shocked as we got back into the car for the third time. My head was swimming with what we'd been to see and I was trying to put into words what I was feeling having looked around three places already.
"Babe?"
"None of them felt right. I mean they were lovely places, but, I don't know. They just seemed too normal for us"
We'd looked at three houses so far. All of them were in their own grounds and had a large number of rooms. The first one had been ready to move into, beautiful in all aspects from the kitchen to the bathrooms and bedrooms. It was almost like walking into a show house so to me lacked any character, being too perfect. The second one was similar in location and size but needed a hell of a lot work doing to make it habitable but again I just didn't feel the vibe that it was where I wanted to live.
The third one, of boy, seemed hemmed in with other houses too close and the sound of planes overhead nearly made me duck my head they had seemed so low.
"We have one more place to look at Babe. We can keep looking until we find what we like"
I hated to think that Ranger thought I was being awkward. He'd been very quiet so far and other than the last place hadn't said very much. As we headed back toward Trenton, I was wondering what on earth this last place would look like and where it could be. As we drove through an opening, I was looking around at the expanse of rubble around us on the ground, the car bumping as we drove over it. Once the car had stopped, I opened the door and just stood by the car. I turned around in a circle taking in the old stone wall that surrounded us and rusty gates hanging from their hinges at the entrance. My last view was of an old stone building sited in what seemed to be the middle of the lot.
In my mind I could see the stone wall repaired and replacement gates. Instead of the rubble under our feet I saw grass and trees with small seating areas with the building set majestically behind. I walked toward it now and realized that maybe it wasn't in such bad repair as it had first seemed. It was maybe larger than I'd thought but that gave me an idea on how we could use the space available.
"Babe?"
I know I jumped slightly because to be honest I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't realized that Ranger was just behind me. Instead of answering him I walked through an opening to find myself in a large area where the floors were in fact quite flat and clean. Behind me I could see the light coming through another door at the side, but it looked large enough to bring a vehicle through.
"Can we get upstairs?"
Because I really wanted to see what was above us.
"There's a staircase through that door"
The door he pointed to actually led through to another space with the concrete steps going up the side of the wall. Once upstairs I was totally inspired with the open space, the way the windows let in the light onto the old wooden floor.
"This is it"
I said softly to no one in particular, surprised when Ranger's arm came around me from behind.
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely. I can see the beauty of this place and how the space could work"
"Talk me through what you see"
So I did. From the use of downstairs as a garage and gym area to the open plan living area and bedrooms, hell we could even build in a mezzanine that could be used as a space to relax in.
"The area next door, on the other side of the stairs, well that could be where we work from"
I watched as he turned and looked at the area and then followed Ranger through to the other side of the building waiting for him to say something. As he turned and looked at me, I really couldn't work out what he was thinking and the longer he was quiet for the more convinced I was that he thought it was a bad idea. I followed him down the stairs and back to the car talking to myself the whole way. Okay, maybe it was a bad idea, maybe it wouldn't be possible to do what I thought and maybe it would cost too much.
By the time I'd sat back in the car I was resigned to the fact that buying this property wasn't going to happen. I was aware of the engine starting up and from the corner of my eye noticed Ranger on his phone before we were slowly driving back between the broken gates and out onto the street. I was surprised when we continued through Trenton and were headed east and turned to Ranger to ask where we were going.
"I thought we could spend some time at the beach
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea"
Was all that I said as he increased his speed. Of course, it had me almost wondering if it was such a good idea selling the house on the beach. I mean it should be safe now that we weren't being pursued, shouldn't it? It had character and enough space without having to do any major work on it. Plus, it was next to the sea somewhere that I enjoyed being. I was so lost in thought as the daylight gave way to the evening sky that I wasn't aware of where we were going. So imagine my surprise when we were turning through tall gates and stopping at a barricade with Ranger talking to a guard.
I wasn't going to interrupt their conversation but even after they had finished, and Ranger engaged the gear to move the car forward he just seemed to ignore me.
"Where are we?"
"Ranger, where are we . ."
That was as far as I got before we pulled up at the steps to a small jet. Ranger still hadn't said anything to me and I watched as he got out of the car and then walked behind it and opened my door. As he held out his hand for me to take, I was staring at that small jet wondering if we were actually going to be boarding it and where it would take us.
