Family Ties

Chapter 14

I stood, lost in thought. Okay, lost in panic. I know Ranger was counting on me, he'd even said so. But now I was supposed to ride off after these guys on horseback like, like...

"Stephanie!"

I jumped a little, startled. I guess Ranger had been trying to get my attention for a while.

I glanced at him, worried. "Sorry. You were saying?"

He held out his hand, and as soon as I took it, he pulled me into his arms. "Don't worry, Babe. You can do this." He was rubbing my back in slow circles, and I felt myself relax. I took a deep breath and nodded before I pulled away.

"Okay, so what do I need to pack?" I asked him.

"Bare minimum, leave behind anything you can do without."

I restrained an eyeroll. "Ranger." He waited, obviously amused. "Your idea of bare minimum and mine are very different."

He smiled at me, all 200 watts. "True." He threw me a backpack. "Whatever you take, it has to fit in half that space."

"What?!" I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. I could do this. I opened my eyes, and Ranger was still watching me. "Okay, exactly what are you packing?"

"Two pairs of jeans, two pairs of socks, my toothbrush and a comb. Exact enough?"

I nodded and headed into the bedroom. At least I had an idea of where to start.

I opened my bag and started taking clothes out, laying them on the bed. Okay, a couple of pairs of jeans, a couple of pairs of socks, a couple of pairs of undies... I got that far and stopped, thinking about why Ranger didn't need to pack any. I shook myself out of my stupor as Ranger came into the room, and hoped my blush didn't give me away. Judging by his grin, I was out of luck.

"Might want to toss some shirts in there, Babe. I can go without, but I don't think you'd want to."

This time I didn't even try to stop the eyeroll. "I'm just trying to figure out which ones."

Ranger reached into my bag, grabbing a couple of shirts. "These."

"Any particular reason?"

"They won't look too bad after being crammed into a backpack, and I like that blue one on you. Brings out the color of your eyes."

I took the shirts from him, mumbling a thanks as I packed them. Ranger just smiled, and handed me a ziplock bag. I looked, and there were both our toothbrushes, toothpaste, his comb, and my brush. I know we slept curled up together in the same bed last night, but something about that little ziplock just struck me as amazingly intimate. I shook my head to clear it, and watched as Ranger packed his clothes in the backpack.

"What else?" I asked him.

"If you have a light jacket, bring it. It's still hot during the day, but the desert can get chilly at night." He was putting a small box in the backpack, and I stopped him to see what it was.

"Baby wipes?"

He nodded. "It's a multipurpose box. Handwash, face wash, and toilet paper."

Toilet paper. Or lack thereof, as the case may be. I hadn't even thought about that. It was a little thing, but it reminded me of just how unprepared for this I was. I wondered what else I hadn't thought about, and hoped they were all little things. I blew out a breath.

"You okay, Babe?" Shit. I'd almost forgotten he was in the room. That was a sure sign I was losing my mind. I nodded, and watched him grab another backpack. He pulled a black bag out from under the bed and started transferring things into the pack. Leg shackles, handcuffs, rope, all went into the pack. "Let me see your shoulder holster." I handed it to him without a word. He attached two small pouches to the leather, on the side that wasn't holding the gun. He quickly filled the pouches with loaded clips and snapped them closed. "Try it on."

I put it on, while Ranger watched. "No, that one is going to have to move down." I looked to see what he was talking about. He noticed my look and explained. "If we leave this top pouch where it is, every time you reach forward you'll rub it between your arm and your breast. Don't want chafing on such tender skin." He smiled as he unhooked the top pouch and moved it lower. "It won't be as easy to reach here, but it's better than being miserable. Okay, that looks better. How does it feel?"

Actually, it was quite comfortable. The weight was better balanced, with the gun on one side and the extra clips on the other. "It feels fine. Better than normal, to tell the truth."

He grinned. "Good. Move around, stretch, reach, make sure it doesn't rub or pull anywhere. We can make more adjustments if we need to, but once we leave this house you're likely to be wearing that for hours, possibly days."

I followed his instructions. I even put my jacket on, to see how it felt with that. Ranger smiled his approval. "I think we're good to go."

He nodded agreement and continued to dig through the black bag. He pulled out several boxes of ammunition, a first aid kit, a couple of stun guns, and an extra Glock, just like mine. He handed the last to me. "You can put it on your hip for now. If it gets uncomfortable as we ride, you can put it in one of your saddlebags, as long as you're sure you can get to it in a hurry."

I took another deep breath. I seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Okay. But God help us if I have to shoot from horseback."

He grinned at me. "You're still worried about this whole sleeping outdoors with no running water thing, aren't you?"

I shrugged. "A little, yeah."

"Why?"

"Well..." Ranger reached out a hand to tilt my chin up, forcing me to look in his eyes. "I've never ridden a horse in my life. Never slept outdoors, never...this entire thing is just way outside my experience, and I don't want to fuck this up."

"You won't."

"You can't know that. It feels like we're so close, and if they somehow get away from us, and it's my fault, well, the very thought of it is just intolerable."

"Stephanie." Shit, he used my whole name. "Even if they do get away from us now, it's not the end of the world. It would be a setback, sure, but we'd just have to start over. And if they got away, it wouldn't necessarily be anyone's fault. They've had good luck so far, or the guys' would have tracked them down before they ever left Trenton. If their luck holds, and ours doesn't...we start over, call in reinforcements as we need them, and get the job done. Okay?"

I smiled and tried to relax. He always seemed to know what to say to make me feel better. "Okay."

"And as far as the sleeping outdoors tracking someone goes, I've done it more than I like to think about. I'll coach you. This is a good time to lean back."

"Thanks."

He smiled, and leaned forward to brush my hair out of my face. He then turned back to the black bag, pulling several more guns out of it. He put one in the backpack, in a velcro pocket that would rest against his lower back when he had the pack on. He pulled out a shoulder holster. His carried a gun on each side. He put it on and made a few minor adjustments before adding a belt that held his extra clips. He looked long and hard at a shotgun before putting it back in the black bag. "I'm probably going to wish I had that later."

"Do you really think we're going to need all that?"

He shrugged. "I'd rather have too much than not enough."

Well, put that way...

Ranger was turning back to me. "Do you have a hat?"

I turned and pulled my Seals hat out of my bag, showing it to him. "Good. That and a pair of shades should keep the sun out of your face." He frowned at me, thinking.

"What?"

"Go wet your hair down."

Mystified, I went to do as he asked. When I came back with a towel wrapped around my head, he smiled and motioned me to turn around. He started combing through my hair, rubbing some kind of gel in it. He really surprised me by wrapping my hair in a tight french braid, then tying it with one of the leather straps he used to hold his own hair back.

"Is that okay?" He asked when he was through.

I ran my hand over it. If it looked even half as good as it felt, he'd done an excellent job. "Yeah, it's good." I turned to smile up at him. "Not a skill I would have expected from you."

He squeezed my shoulders a little before he answered. "You're not going to be able to wash your hair for several days, and I thought this would help. My daughter has very long hair, and she plays sports. She's old enough to do her own now, but when she was younger I used to do it for her." His smile was wistful.

"You miss her." I turned to face him fully, and hugged him to me.

He nodded and wrapped his arms around me on a sigh. I'm not sure how long we stood there in silence. It felt good, and I wished Pat was right and that we could make things different between us. Ranger slowly pulled back a little, then leaned down and kissed me. This wasn't a kiss like we'd ever had before. It was sweet and warm and tender, with just a hint of the heat that usually flared between us. It took my breath away, and I was shaking when he pulled away and leaned his forehead against mine. He kissed my forehead before pulling away completely. "Thanks."

I smiled up at him, hiding my confusion. "Anytime." I was thankful my voice sounded normal.

He grabbed both backpacks and headed toward the living room. I followed, asking. "Shouldn't we call Jack and Pat?"

He set the packs down by the front door as he answered. "Already done. They're on their way. Driving the speed limit, it should be a three hour drive. I called maybe an hour ago, so I'll expect them in about a half hour, forty-five minutes, tops. Now we just have to wait for Sonny's call."

As if on cue, his cell phone started to ring. "Sonny?" I asked hopefully.

He shook his head as he checked the caller id. "Tank."

"Let me talk to him when you're done, please."

He nodded as he answered. "Yo."

I walked away, trying to let them have a private conversation. A few minutes later, Ranger called me back to the living room and handed me the phone.

"Bombshell, how goes it?"

"Tank." I wasn't sure just how to approach this.

"Problem?" His voice was serious.

"Not exactly. More like a question."

"Okay then, shoot." His tone had lightened up considerably.

"Telling tales out of school, Tank?"

He sighed. "Look Stephanie, Kappy had every right to want to know something about your training and qualifications."

I didn't know if I was more relieved or aggravated that he knew exactly what I meant. "Agreed."

My agreement must have surprised him, because there was a brief pause before he spoke. "So then what..."

I cut him off. "A heads up would have been nice, so I'd have a clue on what might have been shared."

Silence on the other end of the phone. After what seemed an eternity, he finally answered. "Agreed." He sighed. "Won't happen again."

I smiled, and hoped he could hear it in my voice. "Thanks."

"So, we're okay?"

"Of course, why wouldn't we be?"

He didn't answer. "Now that I have you on the line, how is Ranger holding up?"

"He's fine. You were right, he settled down once the work started."

He blew out a breath. "That's what I was hoping to hear."

Ranger's phone beeped. Another call was coming through. I walked quickly back to the living room, and handed the phone back to Ranger.

"You've got another call."

He nodded. "Tank? One of us will call you back." He switched lines. "Yo." He walked into the kitchen where Sonny's map was still spread out. "I see it. We'll meet you there as fast as we can get there. Can you call Snake and Kap, give them an update?"

He hung up and turned to me, folding the map. "Let's grab our gear. It's time to go to work."