Chapter 10

Lester's POV

I think that Ranger and I both were surprised that she ran like she did the other night. The way her innocent heart and beautiful body attacked every new experience with abandon I think we both thought that she would warm to the idea of having us both love her. Ranger thought she would call or come right back. When she didn't I was worried. I knew she had went to Brian.

The next day she called Tank and quit her job. I knew this was serious even before Ranger did. Tank called us both to his office and it was bad. I have never seen him lose his shit like that. His words stunned and seared both of us.

"Do you two dumb fuckers have any idea what you have done? You have successfully removed the best thing that ever happened to us from all our lives. I can tell you with all surety that our little girl won't ever be back."

"You didn't love her and have enough respect for her to ask her if she wanted that? You two actually planned some twisted seduction thing on her for your own pleasure? She feels dirty now, man!"

"She deserved a choice dammit! If you had been honest with her and let her choose, this thing could have gone in a whole other direction. Now, I can guarantee that she's out of our lives. I never heard her talk like she did. Ranger, you stay the fuck away from her. Her wishes and she means it. She's fucking devastated." He rubbed his hands down his face and when he removed them there were tears there.

"Ranger man," he cried, "if you weren't already busted up, I would take your ignorant ass to the mats and beat the fuck out of you! Santos you're coming with me now!"

For the better part of an hour, he did beat the fuck out of me and I let him until Brown came in and pulled him off of me. Bobby looked at my bloody face. "What the hell are you doing Tank?"

Tank fell back on the mats and put his face in his big hands. "The brightest light that ever came into our lives is gone now and she ain't never coming back Bob," Tank said. In the shower, both of us cried for our loss. When we got back down to level five we found that Ranger had just disappeared. The offices and control room were silent except for the humming of the electronic equipment.

I needed to find her. I pulled up to the bonds office and just then the door opened and Steph and Brian stepped out. She turned and locked eyes with me and I saw the hurt and pain in her blue eyes. I knew it was true. We had tragically misjudged her and hurt her. We had lost her. I pulled away and drove back to Rangeman. Later Ranger came back and went straight to the apartment. I followed him up and knocked. He opened the door and let me in.

"What Tank said is true. I saw her from a distance. She showed me exactly what she felt just in her eyes. The hurt, the pain, the betrayal. It was all there. He was right. We should have trusted her enough to talk to her about this before we tried to push it on her. She trusted us and we betrayed her. We weren't thinking about her. We were thinking about us Ranger."

He was silent. The blank face was pissing me off. "You don't have a fucking thing to say? You just lost the only woman that you ever loved!" He turned his back to me.

"It's probably for the best Santos. Dismissed."

"Fuck you man."

It was evident already that life without Steph was going to be almost unbearable for us all. After this I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay here either. What had we done? How had Ranger misjudged her so badly? Did he really know her at all?

I did a search to find Brian's address and drove there the next day. He opened the door and looked at me and snorted.

"Is Steph here?"

He shook his head no.

"Do you know where she is?"

"If she's not at her apartment then I don't know."

"Thanks."

"Lester? You tell Ranger that he is a damn fool. Both of you turned the love that she has in her great big heart for you into something dirty. I don't know her as well as you and could have told you that she's not the woman you planned her to be. You both deserve an ass whipping for what you did and it looks like somebody else thought so too." I nodded.

I got in the truck and hung my head. He was right and I was ashamed of my part in this. I just wanted to find her and apologize and tell her how much I really loved her.

I drove to Steph's apartment and went up and knocked. There was no answer. I picked the locks and went in. The bed had not been slept in and when I went into the bathroom I was surprised to find Rex. I went to the kitchen and got something to feed him and left the apartment.

I called her parents house and asked if she was there; dodging as many questions as I could before I disconnected.

Then I drove to the bonds office and went in.

"Hey Connie. Seen Steph today?"

"No, she came by a couple days ago and picked up two skips."

"Get any receipts yet?"

"No, but I heard she delivered Clyde yesterday."

"Who was the other skip?"

"Why do you want to know Lester?"

"Just worried about her."

She sighed. "Frederick Harris. Address near the Barrens. Fucking wife-beater. Here's the address."

I drove to the address and before I even pulled into the drive, the hair was standing up on my arms. I called Ranger.

I parked and pulled out my gun. I walked to the front door and tried it. Then I slowly walked to the back and tried the door. It was open. I silently stepped through. Three steps and I smelled it before I saw the dead woman, eyes staring cold on the floor. It wasn't Steph. I stepped over her pitiful body to check out the rest of the rooms. There was no one in the house. I tip toed back to the back door and looked around. There was a shed off to the left. I crouched and ran to the back of it and dialed 911 and reported the body.

I started around the side of the shed and when I was almost to the door I smelled the blood. I kicked the door open and crouched. Two steps in the door and even in the dark the unmistakable body of a female. Oh please no. She was covered from head to toe in blood. I picked her up and held her to me and cried. "Oh God No! Not this woman!"

I carried her through the door and fell to my knees hugging her limp body to me as Ranger and Tank and Bobby arrived. There were loud animalistic cries and I wasn't sure if they were mine or theirs.

TBC

Please don't hate me readers. My peace offering is another story with an opposite ending. I kept Ranger in the third person on purpose. What's your opinion of his attitude? Notice I wrote Steph a little stronger in the end for this story?