'Ok,' he said, 'you can cry now.'
I nodded into his neck. And then the floodgates opened.
Chapter 4
I heard the door to my apartment open, and the smell of French fries wafted out to my nose. The Merry Men have excellent timing; I've just about finished crying all over Ranger, and now I definitely need the cure.
My head feels like a time bomb…it could explode any second now.
Tank held out the McDonalds bag to me, I nodded thanks; already busy pouring the ketchup over the fries. I scarfed my way through the fries, drank the coke, and started to feel like a human being again.
'The brain swelling's gone down now.' I informed Ranger.
He smiled, 'feeling better?'
'Yup,' I nodded. 'Thanks,' I said to the room in general.
Lester and Tank nodded, and Ranger's arms tightened slightly around me.
'You're not going to make me run now, are you?'
I felt Ranger laugh silently. 'Tomorrow.' He said.
'6?' I said hopefully.
'5.' Ranger corrected.
I sighed. Lester tried unsuccessfully to squelch a grin. I sent him a Burg glare, and his grin widened.
'Hector's going to install you a security system later, ok?' Ranger said.
I could say no…but that would be stupid. So I shrugged, 'sure.'
'He'll be done by 4, then I'll swing by and explain how it works.'
'Ok, thanks Ranger.'
Ranger kissed me lightly on my hair and lifted me easily off his lap, before depositing me on the couch again. He stood up gracefully, 'later Babe.' He said, and him and the Merry Men made like wind.
I carefully stepped over Lula and made my way to the bathroom, I had a shower and felt even better. I got dressed and checked the time, 6:30am.
Well screw that.
I went back to bed.
I woke up at two in the afternoon, oops. I heaved myself out of bed and made my way to the living room, it was empty. Guess the girls went home.
I ate some pop tarts and decided I might as well stay here and wait for Hector. I set about cleaning up; it's surprising how much mess stomping on a table can leave.
I heard someone picking my lock and then Hector walked in.
He paused, clearly surprised to see me here.
'Hola.' He said finally.
I gave him a finger wave. His lips twitched in amusement; do none of the Merry Men smile properly? Except Lester.
Stupid Lester.
'Bang.' Hector said, I hope he's referring to the time I shot the shit out of the keypad, and isn't threatening to kill me.
Since I'm pretty sure I'd faint if another person threatened me, I smiled and went with the first option.
'Bang.' I repeated.
He pointed outside into the hall, 'smash.' He said.
He must be referring to the table pieces outside; I hadn't quite gotten around to tidying that up.
'Smash.' I agreed
He looked at me for a moment more, and then he fetched his toolbox and mechanical gizmo's and set to work
I guess the conversation's over.
I shrugged and went back to cleaning.
'Aren't I a good hamster Mommy?' I asked Rex, He twitched his whiskers at me from his sparkly clean cage and disappeared into the soup can.
Ungrateful brat.
It was nearly 4 o'clock. Finally, I could put it off no longer. With a sigh I dragged myself to my beeping answer machine, the light was flashing frantically. It was kinda dangerous really, that kinda thing could induce epileptic seizures.
I grit my teeth, took a deep breath and pressed play.
The first seven messages were about Joe's infidelity: mostly cursing him ('Morelli men are all the same') and giving me commiserations.
My mom asked if I was mistaken in what I saw? Or maybe Joe was working and had to sleep with Terri?
I could almost feel my Mom's desperation as my 'last chance' for marriage slipped away.
The next three messages were really interesting. According to Eddie, Carl and Big Dog, Joe had come into work with the shit kicked out of him; apparently he fell down the stairs – at least that's what he's telling everyone.
But it was the last message that really grabbed my intention. It was from Sue Ann, the gossip queen extraordinaire, and my main source of information.
'Steph? How are you? It's Sue Ann. I heard the most interesting thing; I heard that at 6 o'clock this morning, a brand new black Mercedes was parked a few blocks away from Joe's. Apparently, three huge guys dressed in black got out, and then they walked to Joe's and went in. They went back out about half an hour later. And then at seven Joe left for work, by which time he'd uh…fallen down the stairs. Just thought you might wanna know.' She paused. 'I wonder where Ranger was this morning? Bye Steph.' Subtlety has never been one of Sue Ann's strong points.
I felt this huge grin spread across my face. I should be mad that Ranger may have assisted Joe's fall down the stairs, absolutely hoping mad – it might send out the message that big bad girl bounty hunter needs big bad boy bounty hunter to beat up her ex.
But the truth is, I couldn't beat up Joe; I'm a girl from the Burg, and my mom would be scandalised. But I could be happy that Ranger and his Merry Men had done it for me.
Besides, Eddie and the other's knew Joe hadn't fallen down the stairs, they just didn't know who beat him up; if they did they would have mentioned it. Only Sue Ann had a good enough network to find out about the Mercedes, the men, and Joe's fall. And she wouldn't tell – it wasn't a good idea to spread things like that around…Ranger might get annoyed.
I was standing there, grinning like a fool when Ranger, Tank and Lester walked in.
I ran to Ranger and threw my arms around him, 'You're the best!' I exclaimed.
Ranger smiled, 'oh?'
'Joe fell down the stairs.' I explained.
'Really?'
'Yeah, Carl thinks maybe he fell on the doorknob too, and that's what gave him a black eye.'
'It could happen.' Ranger said.
'Yeah.' I agreed, kissing him lightly on the lips. 'Thanks.' I said.
'For what?' Ranger said guilelessly.
'Being you.' I laughed. Then I rewound the last message again, and pressed play, letting them listen to Sue Ann's message.
'The boys and I were sparring this morning,' Ranger said blandly, 'I wonder why she wanted to know where I was?'
'Probably she was just curious.'
'Yeah.' Ranger agreed, smiling. 'Curious.'