A/N: This is the final chapter!
Chapter 16
The first thing Stephanie became aware of was touch, a stroke of her cheek, the skimming back of her hair. Then there was sound, a soft murmur in a rich, deep voice as familiar to her as her own. A second masculine voice came to her; only it was curt, not quite as deep, and a further distance away. The two voices didn't seem to be holding the same conversation.
The closer, deeper voice said, "Stephanie. Open your eyes." The voice held an edge of authority, but it also seemed anxious and so worried. She really wanted to open her eyes and assure the speaker that she was fine … but damn, her head was hurting and the side of her neck felt like it was on fire.
"Stephanie." Ugh. He wasn't giving up.
"Mmmm." Okay. Mouth not in working order. Maybe she should just go back to sleep…
There was a sensation of a cool hand smoothing across her forehead, followed by the delightful feeling of a soft kiss on her cheek and a light scrape of stubble on her face. She knew it was Ranger even before he said, "Babe. Now. Open your eyes for me."
And she did. Holy cow, he looked rough. His brows were furrowed, the creases near his eyes were deeper than she had ever seen them and his mouth was hard and serious. But his eyes … oh his eyes made her go all soft inside. They seemed to convey relief and tenderness along with assurance that everything was going to be okay.
Suddenly everything came back. Ranger wasn't dead. That thought gave her such joy that it calmed her for a moment. Then she flashed on the assault against the cabin, the terror she wouldn't allow herself to drown in at the time, the adrenalin, the tunnel, the faceless man who said he was Ranger. Everything came back to her in vivid detail. That was when body began to hum, causing her to shiver and vibrate like a human tuning fork. Her teeth chattering, she realized she was very cold. Curling into herself, she rolled to the side and closed her eyes. Not ready for this.
There was a sound of Velcro ripping, then Ranger shifted around and laid something across her torso. A shirt? He finger-combed her hair away from her face and hooked a section of it behind her shoulder. "Stephanie, you can't go to sleep. Aside from the fact you're lying in the woods with your head in my lap, you probably have a concussion."
"But my head hurts." She frowned realizing how petulant and child-like she sounded.
"Babe, I know it does. Jase is on the phone with the authorities now. I can't imagine they're not already halfway here with all the gunfire exchanged in the last forty-five minutes. An ambulance should be here soon."
Resigned, Stephanie flopped to her back again and raised her hands to massage her temples. Even in the dark, she could see that Ranger looked tired. "Is it over?" she asked.
Nodding once, he said, "Jase took care of Santiago's partner just minutes after you left. It was far cleaner than the man deserved. We'll have to wait until the bullets are retrieved and the ballistics analysis comes back, but it looks like you took care of Santiago all on your own."
"Was that you behind me?"
He gave her another single nod. "Jase was about twenty yards behind Santiago so it's a good thing your aim was true." His voice was tight and she knew he was imagining how differently things could have turned out. Shifting a bit so that he could bend to kiss the tip of her nose, he said gruffly, "You amaze me."
She could hear the distant wail of sirens but she knew it was a long circuitous trek up the mountain so they had a few more minutes alone. The stinging of her neck became a more pronounced throbbing and she moved her hand to feel for the wound. Ranger caught her wrist before she could investigate the source of pain. "No, Babe. Don't touch. You don't want it to get infected."
"Was I shot?"
Loosening his hold on her wrist, Ranger entwined her shaking fingers with his. "Very nearly." The tone in his voice left no doubt that it was a little too close for his comfort. "You caught some tree shrapnel."
Through chattering teeth, she said, "I what?"
"His bullet lodged in the tree behind you. Your neck caught a few shards of bark. It's gonna need to be cleaned and there might still be splinters of wood under the skin."
"Why does my head feel like I've been on a three-day bender?"
She was watching his face. He looked a little disgusted with himself. "When you jerked back from the recoil, I stepped a little to the side to take my own shot. You either lost your balance or slipped. After I was sure Santiago was down, I looked over and saw you in a heap. You must have cracked your head against the tree."
"Stupid tree," she muttered.
He cracked a smile at that. Serious again, he said, "Better a tree than a bullet. It probably doesn't help that you cracked your head on the hardwood floor when I covered you back at the cabin." A dose of self-imposed guilt was laced through his words.
Jase jogged over with a quilt from the cabin tucked under one arm and a flashlight in his other hand. Dropping to his knees across from Ranger, he shook out the blanket to cover Stephanie's shivering form and handed Ranger the shirt he had draped over her. Jase grinned at her and said, "Nice shootin', Tex."
She frowned at him and his trademark smirk, which looked a bit eerie in the glow of the flashlight. "Thanks. But I'm not used to you being nice to me. It's a little weird. You can stop now," she said.
One side of his mouth kicked up a fraction. "You're just shocky. You don't even realize you're talking nonsense." It was then that she saw that he had a bottle of peroxide and a sealed packet of gauze.
Stephanie rolled away from Jase and whined to Ranger, "Make him go away. He's mean."
Chuckling, Ranger gently grasped her shoulders and nudged her over on her back once again, then pulled the tangles of her hair out of the way for Jase.
As Jase drizzled peroxide over the side of her neck, Ranger began talking in a low, hypnotic cadence. "That was smart of you to test him, querida."
Even in her semi-altered post battle state, Stephanie knew that Ranger was so trying to distract her from the icy cold liquid turned molten lava that Jase was pouring over her wound. And the ploy wasn't working. Much.
"I remember exactly what you were wearing when we first met at that diner," said Ranger, squeezing her hand.
Through narrowed eyes, Stephanie watched as Jase industriously applied half a tube of antibiotic ointment over a square of gauze. He muttered, "Christ, do I even want to hear this?"
Ignoring the peanut gallery, Ranger said, "You were wearing a suit with a silky red blouse. I'm pretty sure you had it unbuttoned so low in concession to the heat, but I appreciated it all the same."
Jase made an odd sound in the back of his throat.
She shifted her glare to Ranger, ignoring his wolfish grin. "Ranger. Stop," she gritted through clenched teeth as she cast a pointed look towards Jase.
Jase said, "Yeah, man. Seriously. I really don't need to hear this shit. It's like listening to my dad getting frisky with my mom." He mimed gagging. Then he gently laid the gauze against her neck.
Ranger plowed on undeterred. "You weren't wearing any pantyhose. Made me wonder what else you weren't wearing under your skirt."
Jase made pained faces as he picked up his supplies. He said, "I'm gonna leave you kids here to make cow eyes at each other. I'll be at the bottom of the driveway directing traffic and planning my lobotomy."
Just before Jase disappeared into the darkness of the forest, Ranger hollered, "Got your Federal ID handy?"
His disembodied voice called back, "Yes, Dad."
Turning his focus back to Stephanie, Ranger's expression was much more serious now. She could see his thoughts shifting and feel the subtle tensing of his thighs beneath her head. Solemnly, he said, "We have a lot to talk about, Steph."
He sounded so serious. Had he changed his mind about wanting her in his life after seeing firsthand how everything could go to hell in a hand basket? Did he think the risk was too high? Hiking the quilt over her shoulder and curling into herself, Steph said, "Can it wait?"
He was silent for a beat, then said, "Yeah. They might want to take you to the hospital to check your head. And we have a lot of questions to answer when the state police get here."
Just then, the intermittent blue and red strobes broke through the trees, alerting them that reality was closing in. What seemed like a dozen floating flashlight beams bobbed and swayed as they got closer and closer, reminding them that their quiet moment was about to be disrupted.
Panicked, she looked up at Ranger and said, "What do I say?"
Shifting beneath her, he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and said, "The truth. You did nothing but defend yourself tonight and that's true of Jase and me. If they ask you any background questions about Santiago, refer them to me. You don't know him. It was self-defense, Babe."
The army of police officers broke over the last ridge. Stephanie whispered, "I can do this," as if trying to convince herself.
"Of course you can, querida. You're the bravest person I know."
…
The crime scene investigators didn't pull out of the driveway until nearly noon the following day. Once Ranger and Jase's federal connections were confirmed, the atmosphere overall seemed to lose some of the tension and intensity. Jase had agreed to run into town to make a formal statement while Ranger kept watch over Stephanie, who after passing her neurological tests, refused to go to the hospital. He woke her every two hours and made sure she answered his questions to show she was coherent. She was pretty sure she was coherent every time he woke her, but she knew she was also extremely irritable and short tempered. He didn't really seem to mind.
Jase returned just after five that evening and took over watching her so that Ranger could drive into town and make his formal statement. Stephanie would have to do the same eventually, but as far as Ranger was concerned, the authorities could wait until she'd recovered a little and had some rest. This was one time she appreciated his over-protectiveness.
It was dark when Ranger returned to the cabin. Jase had made dinner and the two of them were eating in companionable silence. Nodding his head to Jase and placing a kiss on Stephanie's head, Ranger went over to the pot on the stove and spooned noodles onto his plate and covered them with a generous portion of stew.
Conversation seemed stilted. Jase and Ranger discussed the red tape that would have to be cut to expedite the closing of the case. And it would be cut. Ranger would see to it.
Thirty minutes later, Jase stood up from the table and stretched. "I'm gonna take off. I booked a room in town near the police station." He glanced pointedly at Ranger. "Walk me out?"
Ranger nodded and stood, following Jase to the door.
…
Stephanie took a shower while Ranger and Jase talked on the porch. She knew there must be things they felt better discussing while she was not present. Slipping into clean panties and one of Ranger's t-shirts, she made her way down the hall and was surprised to see Ranger inside once again, securing the door for the night. He walked silently towards her and stopped when there were only inches between them.
She wanted to look up at him now, to enjoy the moment they didn't have when he'd first arrived. But she was confused. Between last night and tonight she'd had way too much time to ponder conversations they'd had before he left for Mexico. She'd also remembered things he'd said when he first arrived at the cabin. When she didn't look up at him right away, he tugged at one of her curls and softly implored, "Stephanie, sweetheart … please look at me."
It took her a few moments to gather her resolve, then she slowly raised her eyes to his face. He looked tired. So tired. He also looked worried, ashamed, regretful ... and so very beautiful. When she realized that he was allowing her to see so much of what he was feeling, her features crumpled and she sagged against him, her face buried in his chest.
Taking a deep breath, she inhaled his unique scent, his essence, his vitality. She couldn't hold back anymore, the reality of everything hit her all at once. Emotion rushed through like water surging over a levy under too much pressure. Her body wracked with sobs as she let out everything she had been holding back since that morning she thought she lost him.
His arms, those strong arms she thought she had lost forever, pulled her into his body, into his heart, as if he were trying to absorb her pain. Ranger burrowed his face in her hair as he murmured, "Forgive me. I'm so sorry. You have to forgive me." His voice broke at the end of his plea, as though the possibility of not receiving absolution from her would literally destroy him.
But what was he asking forgiveness for? His angry words just last night, when he implied that they might have purposely ignored his request to stay in the bunker? When he let himself wonder, even for a moment, if she had turned to Jase sexually? Or was he asking her to forgive him for the life he wanted her to live if she accepted him? The only life he had to offer?
Turning her head to the side, she shuddered out a deep sigh and said, "I love you."
He stilled. She hadn't realized it at the time, but as she cried he had been slowly rocking her, rocking them both in that familiar sway a parent learns when trying to soothe an inconsolable child. When he didn't say anything, she added, "I … I had to tell you that first. Before we talk about anything else. I didn't know if I would get a chance to tell you again-"
"Shhh, sweetheart." He leaned back slightly to wipe at her tears with his thumbs.
Stephanie looked up and whispered, "I thought you were dead."
"Last night?"
She shook her head. "No. Before."
"I'm right here."
"But the tracker-"
"Failed. It just failed. We'll figure it out later. I'm sorry I put you through that."
He pulled her with him as he stepped back and settled into a low-armed upholstered chair, tugging her into his lap. Gently, he maneuvered her so that she was facing him, her knees pressed into the cushion by his hips. With one hand, he held her upright, his thumb under her ribs, big fingers curled around her side.
His other hand pushed her hair back from her tear-stained face. After he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, he stroked a finger across her lower lip, down her chin, to the hollow of her throat. Then he splayed his hand between her breasts and whispered, "Do you love me enough?"
Couldn't he see her? Wasn't it obvious? How could he possibly doubt the depth of her feelings after all they had gone through?
Grasping her chin, he forced her to look at him. "Stephanie. I can see your mind going a hundred miles a minute, and probably down the wrong road. I love you. I am in love with you. That is never going to change, whether you choose to live some kind of life with me, or if we go our separate ways.
"I will understand if you can't live this life. I don't want to live this life, but I've made my bed and I have no choice. You do. And I wouldn't hold it against you, resent you, or regret you if you tell me to walk away."
"How could you possibly think-"
"I don't want to think in those terms. But I know it's a possibility, a reality I may have to live with. I know how much you'd hate living under what you'd see as restrictions. Wondering when something like this would happen again … it can be mentally draining, even incapacitating. On top of that, last night I exhibited some of my least desirable qualities. I might have a long fuse, but clearly I have a temper. I can be irrationally jealous. I've never been that way before, but I've always felt that way with you. I hate that about myself. I'm bossy, domineering, I give orders instead of asking … and you're supposed to be my lover. Don't think I'm not kicking my own ass for speaking to you that way."
"Is this the part where you ask me to go steady?" she asked. The lack of his smile told her the joke fell flat.
He rubbed his hands over her hips and closed his eyes for a moment. "This is the part where I ask you if you've made your choice."
When he opened his eyes again, they were blank, no emotion. It was clear that he was steeling himself for the answer he didn't want to hear.
It was then that she realized that his blank face gave her every indication of his emotions. It said he was resolved, prepared, vulnerable … afraid.
And that last emotion would have brought her to her knees if she wasn't already on them. Ranger wasn't afraid of much. He'd told her he wasn't afraid to die. But he was deathly afraid that he had already lost her, would have to live without her.
His fears were groundless.
She reached up and smoothed his silky hair away from his eye with her thumb. Then she traced her index finger along the dark arch of one raven's wing brow, an arch she knew women paid good money for in a salon, but for Ranger, it came as a gift from Mother Nature.
"You're so beautiful it almost hurts to look at you," she whispered.
His eyes softened then and he rumbled, "I think the same thing about you."
Her mouth tipped up slightly and she watched her hand float down his stubbled cheek. "We're not the same. You're more beautiful. You just think I'm beautiful because you see me through your heart."
His brow furrowed and his hands tightened on her hips. He took a breath and she knew he was about to defend his opinion so she went on.
"I've said some things to you in anger that I wish I had never said. There are things you can say to a person that can never be taken back. Sometimes they're so hurtful, it's all they can hear, all they will remember. Even if you apologize, it never goes away. Even if you say wonderful, new things to them, and mean them … it's too late."
"Babe-"
She shook her head. "Let me talk. I love you. I don't hate you. I've never hated you. I've never thought you were psychotic or crazy or-"
Smiling softly, he said, "An asshole, a prick or a jerk?"
Gnawing her lip, she looked down at where her hands had settled on his chest. "I've thought that you were acting that way, but I never should have said it. You don't say those kinds of things to the person you call your friend. To the person you love. Not even in anger."
"You were mad at me and scared."
She shook her head. "It's no excuse. But for what it's worth, I apologize. It was beneath me and you didn't deserve it. And I hope that I never say something like that again, but if I do…"
He pulled her in and ran his hands up and down the length of her back, finally settling his palms on her bottom as she tucked her head under his chin.
Clearing her throat, she said, "When I thought you had died … God. I wanted to die too."
Squeezing her tight, he said harshly, "Don't say that. Don't even think it. Ever."
Shaking her head, she said, "I wouldn't have—I just knew I had lost a piece of me that I would never get back. That I would never be the same. I regretted all of the things I never told you and every minute of every day that I held myself back from you."
"Stephanie … sweetheart." He paused and swallowed audibly. Voice thick, he said, "You can't base a decision like this on regret."
Pulling back, she bracketed his face between her hands and stared into his eyes. "I already made my decision before you left."
His eyes clouded over a moment before he looked away from her. His grip on her bottom went slack, then fell away.
Shaking her head she reached for both of his hands and pulled them to her face. Placing a kiss on each scarred fist, she said, "Do you remember at the cemetery, after Mama Macaroni's funeral, how I cried?"
His expression was confused, his brows drawn together.
She went on. "You were quietly laughing at me, but you held me. I loved it when you held me like that. I still do. And then I asked you if I looked all blotchy. You told me, 'Yes, but I love you anyway.'"
He cringed a little, probably remembering the lovely qualifier he had tacked on. "Babe, I didn't mean—you were with Joe and-"
Dropping their joined hands in her lap, she shook her head again and said, "It's not that. It's … I asked you about being relationship material, the marrying kind. I wanted to know, needed to know if there was ever any chance for us.
"When you brought up the two guns and a knife, it made me sad. God, it made me sad. But I never really thought about the fact that when Joe talked about marriage, it scared me. It gave me hives. When I heard that there was no chance for you and me-"
"I said, not any time soon," he interjected. "Not no. Not never. Just … not any time soon."
Chin to her chest she whispered, "Oh God. You did." Her voice was laced with sadness and a little bit of anger at herself for not focusing on the right words. Looking up again, she said, "But I think my heart decided that day. Even if my mind couldn't believe it, my ears couldn't hear it and my eyes couldn't see it … my heart chose you."
Dropping her hands, he pulled her in, resting his forehead against her neck. He said, "I never wanted this kind of life for you. You deserve to have your freedom. You shouldn't have to live in fear. You shouldn't have to live in a gilded cage."
"I shouldn't have to live without you," she retorted.
"I didn't want to love you."
"Is that supposed to make me feel good?"
"I didn't want to love you, but I did. I do. You want to give everything to the person you love. All I can see are the things our loving each other will take away from you. If I could go back and live my life differently, so I could give you a better life, a safe life, I would. God … I wish I could."
Shaking her head, Stephanie said, "You wouldn't be who you are now. We wouldn't be who we are now. Everything that you have done in your past has made you who you are. That's the man I fell in love with. You can't unilaterally decide that the price of loving me is too high and do some noble shit and walk away from me."
Ranger relaxed into the chair, laid his head against the back and closed his eyes. All of the tension in his body seemed to just melt away. Tipping forward in his lap, Stephanie placed a tender kiss just below his ear and whispered, "Do you love me enough?"
His arms wrapped around her tightly. Voice gruff, he said, "I love you too much."
He stood from the chair, bringing her with him. Stephanie instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bedroom. Once inside, he placed her on the center of the mattress and braced himself over her, just looking at her at her, studying every inch of her face as though seeing her for the first time.
She whispered, "Please kiss me."
Lowering his head, he brushed his lips across hers so gently it made her sigh. She opened her mouth and tried to force him to deepen the kiss before he was ready. Though he let her play some, he kept the pace slow and tentative. He brought his hands up to cradle her head and she felt an ache in her throat at the reverent gesture.
After long minutes, he slowly drew back and grasped her wrists, pulling her up so that they were kneeling, face-to-face. He slid his hands slowly up her thighs, caught the hem of her shirt and tugged it over her head.
She waited passively with her hands in her lap as he took in the sight before him. For once his eyes weren't swirling black pools of carnal lust; all she could see was love, adoration, and a tiny bit of awe. Leaning forward, he placed a soft kiss on her left nipple, then her right. Then he stood from the bed and peeled off his clothes, his eyes focused on her.
Once he stepped out of his cargos, Ranger crawled back onto the mattress and kneeled before her once again. He clasped her bottom where it rested on her heels and hauled her upright. Hooking his thumbs into the hips of her white cotton panties, he dragged them slowly down to her knees.
Then his hand was between her thighs, lightly stroking over her soft curls. Stephanie closed her eyes and bit back a moan, enjoying the ache of anticipation, the desire to be filled. Gnawing on her lower lip, she looked up at Ranger through her lashes and saw his eyes go dark as he watched himself stroke her cleft.
Stephanie whimpered out when he shifted his hand and entered her with one finger. With a twist of the wrist, he added another, and his thumb began rotating in maddeningly slow circles around her clit.
Her hips began to roll, her body swayed as she panted out, "Carlos, please."
Leaning down, he took her nipple in his mouth, and she grasped his shaft, stroked him firmly and glided her thumb across the slippery head. As he suckled her, he groaned against her breast, the vibrations sending an electric jolt straight between her legs.
Ranger pulled himself from her grasp and urged her to lie down. After tugging her panties completely off, he settled his shoulders between her legs and licked at the silky wetness glistening on her upper thighs.
Tunneling her fingers in his hair, she tried to pull him up. "I don't need…" she panted. "I just need you inside me. Please."
He caressed her thighs and pressed them wider. Spreading her with his thumbs, he gave her one long lick, then placed a soft kiss on her nub. "I'll never forgive myself for the way I took you the first time. You were meant to be loved thoroughly, meant to be tasted." At his words, she remembered his urgent ferocity when he took her that night so long ago. But in her mind, they took each other.
Tonguing softly at the apex of her sex, he paused a moment and said, "It's like I lost my mind. I had to be inside you. All I could think about was burying myself inside you."
She lifted her hips toward his face impatiently and he sipped, sucked and laved at her until she was moaning and begging. He took his time, using his fingers to tease her, stretch her, and push her to the edge. Stephanie looked down at the erotic sight of his beautiful mouth worshiping at her sex.
He was watching her too.
Placing a small bite on her inner thigh, he added another finger and said, "Once I tasted you, I knew I would never taste anything that sweet again. Every time I saw you, all I could think about was the way you moved beneath me, the way you tasted and the way you sounded when I made you come." He latched his lips around her clit once more, strumming with his tongue as his fingers rubbed deeply in just the right spot. Suddenly, her orgasm crashed over her and Stephanie blindly raked her nails along his shoulders, gasping out his name.
A moment later, Ranger was over her, gripping his shaft and stroking it along her slippery sex. She drew her knees to her chest and reached to clasp his hips and pull him inside. Dragging her nails across his ass, he growled and sheathed his cock in one sure thrust.
Holding himself above her, straight-armed, Ranger stared into her eyes as he glided within her, ground himself against her in a way that slowly drove her out of her mind. Minutes passed and both of their bodies were covered in a fine sheen of sweat, but Ranger showed no signs of tiring.
Stephanie ran her hands over the contours of his chest, flicked her nails across his small copper nipples. He hissed and shivered in response. She looked up and saw him watching her with both love and lust simmering in his eyes, his hair shimmering and dancing over her face in time with his thrusts. Running her fingers over his nipples once again, she gave each a slight pinch and Ranger rewarded her with a deep and powerful thrust, jolting against her womb. A small gasp of pain and pleasure slipped past her lips, but a moment later, she pinched again, then leaned up to suck and soothe the pain away.
Ranger dropped to his elbows, slid his hands under her back and clasped her shoulders, bracing her and giving himself the leverage he needed. With only that warning he began to pound into her fiercely until she was wild with it, moaning and gasping until she was hoarse from her cries for more, harder, deeper… I love you. He released his grip on one shoulder and slipped a hand between them. In a few short strokes she was coming around him, shaking, shuddering, clasping around him. Lifting his hand from her, he grabbed roughly at her hair and kissed her savagely. She felt claimed, marked, owned. One more deep thrust, and he followed her over the edge, calling out her name and emptying himself within her.
…
Stephanie stepped out onto the porch the next morning, coffee in hand, finding Jase sitting in a rocking chair, staring off through the woods at the majestic cloud-haloed mountains. He looked at her silently as the screen door banged shut behind her. In one hand he clasped a Starbucks cup. Her Mensa phone rested on his thigh.
He switched his coffee to his left hand and handed her the phone. She looked down and saw the green light blinking again.
Furrowing her brow, she dropped onto a nearby bench and said, "I don't understand."
"I did a hard reset this morning."
"A what?"
"A hard reset. Sometimes when smart phones lock up, you have to reboot them."
"But this isn't a phone."
"Similar concept."
"Why didn't you do this initially?"
He set his cup on the porch floor near his feet and sat back. "I thought about doing it initially. But we still had his current location. We needed the current location so we could find…"
"His body. Okay. But you uploaded his current information to Tank. Once you did that, you could have reset it. God! I can't believe-"
"Stephanie, listen to me. When you do a hard reset, you risk losing information. And yes, we had his current location uploaded and saved. But there was a chance after a hard reset that we would lose the connection—permanently—to the tracker. What if they decided to move him? What if he wasn't really dead? I knew you would never move on unless you had closure either way. We needed to bring him back to you."
"But he was alive! I would have known-"
"We know that now. And I'm sorry you had to go through that. But would you have ever been able to forgive me if I hit that button and could never bring him home to you?"
Stephanie looked down into her coffee, her eyes burning with the threat of tears. Just then the screen door squeaked open again and Ranger came out. He was wearing a solid gray flannel shirt, completely unbuttoned, and faded jeans perched low on his narrow hips. His hair was loose and damp and his feet were bare. He looked from Stephanie to Jase, then down to the device gripped in her hand.
Heaving out a sigh, he set his coffee on the rail and sat on the bench behind Stephanie, pulling her back against his chest and laying a light kiss on the white bandage at the side of her neck. Plucking her coffee from her hand, he set it aside, then loosened her hold on the device. He studied it for a moment. "It appears I'm among the living once again." Tapping the screen a few times, he continued, "And holed up in my cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains." He shook his head minutely and said to Jase, "Artifact?"
Jase set his chair rocking and said, "Looks like it."
Craning her head around to look at Ranger, she said, "Artifact?"
He shrugged and said, "Like with a computer, when an image is static for too long it can burn into the screen. Only this wasn't burned into the screen. My last location just remained once the computer locked up." He turned back to Jase. "Did you try a hard reset?"
Jase shook his head in regret. "Not until this morning, man. I fucked up."
Ranger's arms tightened around Stephanie. "No, you did the right thing. You didn't know it was an artifact image. You could have lost connection with my frequency and had it not been an artifact, you wouldn't have any idea of where to find me. The risk outweighed the benefit."
"I'll do better next time," Jase vowed.
Stephanie involuntarily flinched at the mention of next time, causing Ranger to stiffen. She relaxed against him a moment later and turned her head to kiss his bicep. "I'm sorry. I just got through this time. It's going to take me a few days to … I'll do better next time, too."
Clasping one of her hands in his, Ranger said, "I just got off the phone with Tank. He's relieved, to say the least. I told him and the guys to take a few days of R&R as long as they were already in Mexico. My treat. We need to get in touch with Micah."
"I already put in a call."
Stephanie asked, "Who's Micah?"
Leaning over to set the device down, Ranger said, "Our unauthorized equipment dealer." To Jase, he said, "Ask him if the devices can be altered so each tracker is linked with two handhelds. Better yet, ask him if he can set it up so each implant is actually two individual trackers both set to the same frequency to both handheld devices. That way we have two backups."
Jase nodded. "On it. I also worked out some specs on a communication relay system for your team. Nothing set in stone, I just roughed something out last night."
Stephanie felt Ranger's head nod above hers. "Thanks. I'll take a look at it." The three were silent for a while as they took in the glorious mountain scenery, as stunning as a painting, the crisp, fresh air scented with wood smoke, and the rustle of wildlife scampering through years of fallen leaves.
Clearing his throat, Ranger said, "I owe you a debt of thanks, Jase. And an apology."
"No you don't."
"Yeah … I think I do."
Jase looked over at Stephanie, cocooned in her lover's protective arms, then up at Ranger. Then he looked off to the side, away from them and said, "No price, man. Ever. For either of you."
Stephanie felt an ache burn deep in her throat. To her ears, Jase had as good as told Ranger that he loved them. That he'd die for them. And she knew that he didn't say it out of tradition or duty. He said it because he meant it.
Jase stood quickly after bending to pick up his coffee. "I've been cleared to leave the state, so I think I'm gonna head out now."
Setting her hands on Ranger's thighs, Stephanie pushed up and walked over to Jase. She hesitated only a moment before wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest. She whispered, "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'll miss you."
He had been stiff when she first embraced him, but at her words, he brought his arms around her shoulders and laid a kiss on the top of her head.
"Yeah, uh … yeah." He cleared his throat. "Can you do me a favor?"
She nodded against his chest.
"The next time I see you, can it be for Thanksgiving or some shit like that? You're really not the best hostess when you're in bunker mode."
She burbled a laugh into his chest and nodded, wiped at her eyes.
Jase pulled back and cleared his throat again before stepping around Stephanie and making his way to Ranger who had stood as they'd said their goodbyes.
The men stood awkwardly facing one other. Each had his hands in his pockets. They said nothing, just looked each other in the eye and said a million things to each other without saying a single word.
I can never repay you.
You never have to. You would do the same for me. And I'll do it again if I have to.
You shouldn't have to. You deserve to have your own life. Five years is a long time.
I can't do that shit again.
You're lying. And you're already half in love with Stephanie.
Fuck you. Like anyone can help it.
If something happens to me…
Yeah, yeah. I'll take care of your girl.
But as long as I'm alive, I'd prefer it if you didn't…
I hear you, brother.
Jase dropped his gaze first and held out his fist for a complicated knuckle-bump, hand slap/handshake that defied Stephanie. Ranger pulled him in for a strong hug that the two men held for a moment. Then came the masculine backslaps. And then Jase walked away.
They watched Jase reverse slowly down the drive. Once he was finished reversing, he changed gears and looked up at the porch. He and Ranger exchanged crisp salutes, then Jase hit the gas and was gone.
Ranger came up behind Stephanie and wrapped his arms around her waist. With his chin resting on the top of her head, he said, "I can make you breakfast if you want. Or we can go into town to eat and do some shopping. We also need to get your statement out of the way. If you just want to get back to Trenton when you're done, we can do that."
She turned in his arms and looked up at his face. "Can we stay here for a few days?"
He nodded his head once.
"Is this the Batcave?"
The right side of his mouth tipped up a fraction as he shook his head slowly.
"Is there really a Batcave?"
"Babe."
"I mean … I assume you're going to take me home. Your home. Our home. After all that talk about you taking care of me and protecting me, and keeping in mind that I'm overlooking the whole belonging to you fully thing," she chanced a glance up at him with a cautious smile, "I was kind of wondering where the Batcave is. Where my home is."
He took her hand, lifted it to his mouth and placed a kiss in the center of her palm. Then he brought it to his chest and set it against his heart. "Babe. It's always been right here."
The End~
