"Babe, I need to sleep. Please stop moving around."
"I'm sorry," Stephanie said sullenly. "I can't make my mind shut off like you can."
Ranger sighed. "Do you want to talk?"
"Not to the guy I met today."
He was silent so long she thought he had fallen asleep. "Babe. That guy is me."
"So underneath all the trappings, you're really just a psychotic, mercenary jerk?"
"I can be."
"And I'm just seeing this side of you now?"
"I guess it was just the perfect storm."
They both laid in silence for a few minutes. At length, Stephanie said, "Can you tell me how this started?"
"I already did."
She sighed loudly. "Ranger, all I heard was enemy, rape, torture, humiliate, kill."
"That's about it."
"Ranger."
"Steph, you know there's not a lot I can tell you."
She snorted. "Well there's a big surprise."
"Steph, it's classified."
"Who am I going to tell? I've lived in the Burg my entire life, I know how to keep my mouth shut." Quietly she added, "Unless you don't trust me."
Even with the curtains drawn, there was a shaft of light coming in and she could see him clearly. He rubbed his face wearily with his right hand. "It happened before I met you, when I was still active duty. There was a mission that went well, for our side. Or so we thought. We found out later that there was significant collateral damage. And that collateral damage just happened to be the women and children of a very powerful man."
Stephanie sucked in some air. "You … please don't tell me you've killed women and children."
He was quiet for a moment. "Steph, things like that happen every day; it's the price of war. And very likely, women and children have lost their lives as a result of some of our missions. But it was never our intent. In this instance, the women and children were left unharmed."
"I thought you said-"
"We left them alone and unprotected."
"But when you said collateral damage, I thought you meant-"
"Christ, Stephanie." He heaved out a deep sigh. "We found out that at some point after we moved on, the women were unable to find protection. The women were raped and tortured repeatedly … in front of their children. Some of the older children were raped, too. Then they slaughtered the women as their children watched. They allegedly sold the surviving children on the black market. Those kids have never been found." His voice was matter of fact, but hollow.
"Who-"
"Does it really matter who, Stephanie?" He closed his eyes and muttered, "Some splinter group came in behind us. We knew nothing of what happened until two years later."
"So why would this man have an agenda against you?"
"I'd received intelligence that he'd already taken care of the splinter group. I guess it took him some time to decide that more retribution was required. In his mind, it was ultimately our group that set off the initial chain of events. He holds me personally responsible for the slaughter and loss of his entire family. I was the team leader."
"But-"
"Stephanie, I can't really blame him. If this happened to my mother, my sisters, my nieces and nephews, my daughter … you … I would stop at nothing to make sure every person responsible suffered in the extreme. But that doesn't mean I can allow anything to happen to you."
"What about your family?"
"They're being moved as we speak. The Martine family too."
"What about my family?"
"I have a team watching over them, but I think they're off his radar. The man thinks I'm a heartless son of a bitch, so I doubt he thinks I'd care one way or the other if my lover's family dies."
"Ranger!"
He clasped her right hand with his left, the short chain on the cuffs rattling between them. "That's not how I feel. That's how he thinks I feel. They're being watched, Babe. I promise."
She turned on her side and touched her forehead to his shoulder. Still clasping his hand, she fell asleep.
They spent the next three nights traveling from dusk until dawn. Always on back roads and from what Stephanie could tell, taking a circuitous route to nowhere. She didn't bother asking him their destination anymore; he wouldn't have told her anyway.
Every morning, as dawn would break, Ranger pulled off at the nearest no-tell motel, cuffed Stephanie to the wheel and booked a room under the name de jour. They showered together in silence, never purposely touching, and then he cuffed their wrists together to sleep.
When she asked why he'd bothered giving her an ID and a credit card, he explained that if she ran from him or they got separated in any other way, he wanted her to have means to take care of herself. She could no longer use her own ID or credit card because they could be traced. Put that way, she felt a small moment of guilt about how nasty she had been to him; but the moment passed quickly.
They checked out before five each evening so that he could rent a new car. She hadn't even considered the possibility that the first car was a rental, but then again, she hadn't thought or spoken in a rational, logical way that first night. He would make some sort of arrangements to have the new rental delivered to the motel they had stayed at that day. The rental car was always a variation of the same theme: non-descript and reliable. Then they'd drop off the old rental at its corresponding chain agency and take a cab back to the motel. Every time it took nearly two hours to go through the process. Every time he would use a different ID. It was exhausting and nerve wracking and Stephanie didn't know how much longer she could live this way.
Talk was very limited. The civilized conversation they'd had three days ago did not open up the floodgates of communication. Ranger kept his own counsel. In the silence, she learned she was beginning to read his moods. If his face was blank, she knew he was planning. If his eyes would narrow very slightly and his jaw clenched, she knew his thoughts were filled with anger. And twice she had seen a deep sadness in his eyes and she wondered if he was regretting her, regretting her existence in his life.
Day four was different. They had only been on the road for a few hours when Ranger pulled off the rural road and onto a long winding drive that was an entrance to a public park. The parking lot was mostly full. There were four high school baseball games going on and the stadium style lights illuminated the park to the level of full daylight. People were wandering around going to and from the restrooms and the concession stands. There was a walking path that encircled the entire park and it appeared to weave in and out of the dense wooded area that surrounded the park on three sides.
He turned off the ignition and sat back, studying his surroundings. After a few minutes, he turned to her and said, "We're going for a romantic moonlit walk. Bring only your purse. Take my hand when you get out of the car."
Ranger exited the car, walked around the back and opened Stephanie's door. He reached down with his left hand and she just stared at it for a moment.
"Stephanie, please," he said softly.
After situating her purse over her shoulder, Stephanie placed her hand in his and he helped her up and out of the car. Ranger leaned across her, slammed the door and beeped it locked. They walked at a leisurely pace across the parking lot and then onto the grass. When they came upon the path, Ranger shifted their hands smoothly so that their fingers were woven.
The path eventually veered off into the woods and the heavy foliage blocked out much of the light from the park. Stephanie slowed her pace, as she became more and more anxious and uncomfortable being in the woods in the dark. Ranger gave a little squeeze to her hand and tugged her closer to his side. A few minutes later, he broke from the path and guided her down a slight incline. The ground was thick with layers of fallen leaves and she slipped several times. Ranger caught her short of falling each and every time asking quietly if she was okay.
When the trees thinned out, Ranger stopped and scanned the area. He whispered, "Please don't ask any questions right now. Just follow me and stay silent. Can you do that for me?"
Confused and tired, she looked up at the topography of his face limned in moonlight, and saw his beautiful, dark eyes staring back at her. Into her. She knew he would do everything in his power to keep her safe. She also knew that no matter how angry she was with him, she would always give Ranger her loyalty and trust. At her affirmative nod, Ranger led her out of the woods.
They carefully picked their way down a low hill. Stephanie was so busy watching her footing, she was shocked when she looked up and saw that they were approaching the back of a sprawling single story brick building. Ranger picked up his pace and guided her to walk behind him. They came to an end of a section of the building where there was a tall wooden fence-like enclosure. He pulled the long gate open, tugged her inside, and then swung it closed behind them. From one of his cargo pockets, he extracted a small LED flashlight and squatted on the ground about twenty feet from her. She smelled something pungent and realized that the enclosure was built around a trash compactor.
Looking back at Ranger, she saw that he held a small pick-like device similar to a crochet hook, only sturdier. He inserted it into a hole she couldn't see in what she could only describe as a manhole cover. Muscles straining, he pried it up, placed his fingers around the edges and slid the cover half off the opening. Then he slithered down into the abyss. She walked warily over to where he had disappeared and squatted down. He was so quiet that she was startled when his head appeared again. Pulling himself out, he sat on the edge of the hole and used his boot to shove the manhole cover almost completely off. He extended a hand to her.
"Ranger?" she whispered.
He shook his head and continued extending his hand. A shudder ran through her. She placed her hand in his and lowered herself to the edge next to him. When he handed her the LED light, she shined it down and saw that there was about a six-foot drop. Letting go of Ranger's hand, she turned and rolled to her belly, letting her legs dangle into the hole. Ranger figured out what she was doing and squatted in front of her, hooked his hands under her armpits and helped her to slowly lower herself into the ground.
When she dropped to the bottom, she could see there was a short tunnel to her right. It appeared to be made of a large cement drainpipe. She heard Ranger shuffling around above her so she got on her hands and knees and crawled a few feet into the tunnel. The musty smell of stagnant air made her feel as if she couldn't breathe. The sound of Ranger pulling the manhole cover over his head echoed throughout the chamber and she waited until she heard him drop heavily to the ground behind her.
He said, "Go about ten more feet and wait." She did as he asked and found herself at a dead end. In front of her was a cross section of foundation and it was as thick as the tunnel was round. Ranger crawled up behind her and dug in his pocket, pulling out his keys. He had a different type of fob in his hand and he aimed it at the wall. The wall did nothing but she did hear a faint 'click'. Ranger curled in on himself to get his feet under him and then extended in front of him. Bracing his hands, he drew his feet back and kicked at the wall with the heels of his boots. A circular section of the wall swung open to the left like a door on hinges. The lines demarking the door from the wall up until now had been invisible to Stephanie.
Ranger squeezed past her and then through the opening, dropping onto the ground on the other side. It was dark behind him. She looked back at Ranger's face and saw that the floor of the room he was in was much lower than the bottom of the tunnel as she was now looking down at him.
She whispered, "Is this the Batcave?"
He raised his hands to lift her down and said under his breath, "Christ, I hope not."
A/N: Time and life permitting, there MIGHT be a second story update this week. In the meantime, there's a new post at my Mrs. Middle America blog! :)
