Previously-

I ran as hard as I could back to his house and went to the shower. I came out with a towel wrapped around me and he was lying on the bed. He got up and came to me and took my curls in his hands. "I love your wild curls. Do you have a comb and I'll help you comb it out?"

I groaned, "Do you? Can you excuse me?"

I went into the bathroom and began frantically pulling out drawers until I found what I was looking for. I took the scissors and began cutting close to my ears until all the curls lay around me on the floor and then I lay the scissors down and sat on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

Chapter 13

About a half hour later the door opened and Ranger walked in and stopped. "Babe, what did you do?"

I didn't look at him. "You liked them."

"Dios. What have I done to you? Do you really hate me?"

He moved me back to the shower to get all the hair off me and I went to my room afterwards, sans towel, and crawled into bed. Didn't even care. He left a lunch tray and a dinner tray, which I ignored. I slept all day and night. The next morning I still wanted to stay in bed, but Ranger evidently had other plans for me.

There was a knock on my door and a man poked his head through.

I barked, "What?"

"I'm Claudio. Here to cut your hair."

"What? Batman hates my self do?"

"Don't know mam, but I can help you with that." He grimaced at me.

"Did you call me mam? Tell Batman to kiss my ass on your way out."

"I would rather not do that. I value my life and my own ass mam. Please let me fix your hair. I can make it look very cute at this length."

"Can you make it anti-Batman cute?"

"Not sure I understand?"

"I want him to hate it."

"Uh...well not my specialty, but la caca (poop)! My horoscope didn't say nothing about this shit this morning. You sure I'm not on one of them hidden camera reality shows?"

"Oh for cripes sake! Just come in. No sense in ruining everybody's life." I got up and stomped toward the bathroom and he gasped and slapped his hands over his eyes. I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. "What?"

He whispered, "You're naked."

"Oh sorry, just a minute." I grabbed a robe and went in the bathroom and sat in a chair while he clipped away. He used some products and left them. "Voila, mam." Then he wiggled his butt out the door and made a swift exit. I looked in the mirror. Actually it was the cutest short hair cut. He was right and he was talented. La caca!

I showered and put on my clothes and gathered up the trays and headed downstairs. Ranger came into the kitchen when I dropped the trays on the counter and looked at me. "Babe, you look beautiful in this short haircut."

"That is what I didn't want. I don't want you to like anything about me."

"Why?"

"I just don't!"

"I like everything about you. I always will."

"No, no, no! What do you want from me?" I was so angry with him.

"I want you to deal with what happened and get past it."

"What? Why? So we can be fuck buddies again? You missed it Mr. Opportunist and now that I'm free again you want to take up where we left off?" I walked over to him and grabbed his buckle and opened it and unzipped him and jerked his pants down. I pushed him roughly down on the couch and pulled my own shorts off and then pulled my panties to the side and grabbed him and pulled him to my entrance and slammed downward. It hurt and I wanted it to hurt. His eyes were wide and he didn't move. I kept slamming down on him and kept going as he groaned. When he reached out to grab me to him I stopped his hands. "Stephanie Stop...Babe please..."

I screamed at him, "Don't speak!" He had a shocked look on his face and he didn't move. I growled and slammed him in anger and in pain and then he came and I got up and grabbed my shorts and left the room.

The whole time I had felt nothing inside. No hint of pleasure or excitement. I threw back as I walked out of the room, "Glad it was good for you. I hated it and I don't want to do it again with you, ever!" I couldn't think of another way to make him stop tormenting me.

He came in the room that night with a tray and set it down. I was sitting in a chair looking out the window. "I'm not leaving until you eat and drink a little. I'm worried about you." I had so much pent up anger toward him and my rhino bitch was on overload. I didn't move or look at him. "Babe?" Then I glared at him and picked up the fork and jabbed it into a piece of chicken and stuck it in my mouth and then took a drink of iced tea and threw the fork across the room.

"There. Now you can fucking leave." He did a half growl and half sigh and started muttering, "I'm at a loss here. I don't know what to do. I want to help you. Carajo (dammit)! Mierda (Shit)! Joder (fuck)!" Then he walked out. Good riddance asshole.

The next morning he knocked on the door and stuck his head in. "Come downstairs please Babe. There's someone here I want you to talk to."

"I don't want to talk to anybody." He sighed for the one-hundredth time in three days and walked in and grabbed my hand and pulled me down the stairs into the living room while I cursed the day this tormentor was born.

A woman stood up when we entered. "Babe this is Jean Palmetto and she's a therapist and I think you should talk to her." I glared at him. "I don't need a therapist. My fiancé died on our wedding day. I'm not crazy. I'm…out of here." I turned to leave and Ranger grabbed me by the arm. "I am asking you to please sit and talk to Jean. You haven't cried a tear. You're not grieving and you're not feeling anything that you should be feeling." He pushed me down on the couch and left the room.

The woman sat down and looked at me. "Mr. Manoso is concerned about you. He seems to care about you very much." I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"I'm very sorry that you lost your fiancé the way you did. My sympathies. I don't think I would be quite myself for a while either after such a blow. We could just talk woman to woman. You didn't cry immediately after you found out?"

"I wasn't awake to cry. I guess I blacked out."

"Understandable. What happened when you woke up?"

"I got up in a strange place, was uncomfortable, dropped half my wedding garb and left to go home."

"…What then?"

"Went to bed for a couple of days."

"Did you cry at that time?"

"Nope. Just mostly slept."

"What got you out of bed?"

"Grouchy drill sargeant." She raised an eyebrow at that.

"What did he do?"

"Picked me up by my ass and dumped me in the shower and told me I stunk." I looked up to see Ranger lounging in the doorway with an amused grin on his face.

"Then what?"

"He laid out funeral clothes for me and told me that everyone needs closure."

"He sounds like a smart man and a good friend. You went to the funeral? That was really hard I'm sure."

"Yep."

"Did you cry then?"

"No."

"After the funeral…?"

"No. Caveman Ranger dragged me here." She smiled a little and nodded.

"He said you're not feeling anything. What did he mean by that?"

"Oh I feel one emotion."

"That is…?"

"Anger."

"At your fiancé for dying, at Ranger? Where is it directed?"

"Oh no, not towards poor Greg. Mostly at Ranger and at myself."

"Why at yourself? You didn't have anything to do with his death."

Tears filled my eyes and my chest got heavy and I tried to swallow them down.

"No," I whispered. She reached out and took my hands.

"What is it you're really feeling about his death?" I choked.

"Guilt." A tear fell down my face.

"Why do you feel guilty Stephanie?" More tears fell.

I looked up at Ranger, "Because I loved Greg, but I was in love with someone else." She squeezed my hands and nodded.

"Thank you for your time Jean Palmetto…excuse me."

I headed up to my room and began getting all my things together. I had my cell phone out dialing a cab when Ranger walked in. He took the phone from me. "Stephanie please forgive me for hurting you."

"I need to go home now and deal with things the way they are."

"Don't leave. We need to deal with us."

"It's too late. There is no us! You made sure of that. Were you present when I jumped you yesterday? Didn't happen. Nothing there. It was painful. Over!"

"Not for me and I don't think after today and talking with Jean that it would be the same. You just need some time."

"Don't really want to go there and try again. I can't handle any more disappointment right now. Please, I just want to go home."

He sighed again and nodded and picked up his phone and barked some orders.

Later that afternoon we were on our way home and both of us were silent during the flight.

We pulled up to my apartment and I opened the door and headed up while Ranger carried my bags. He went in and checked the apartment and then dropped them. I thanked him and said goodbye. He looked at me with sad eyes and nodded.

Almost three weeks later I got a call from Tank and he wanted me to come to Boston to meet the new female on that team and to do a distraction training job. I agreed and packed a bag for the next day. Ranger picked me up and we drove to Boston. For once Ranger was the one who tried to make small talk, but I wasn't in the mood. I wanted to just get this done and get back home to my safe little cocoon I was building.

When we arrived, Ranger led me to the conference room and introduced me to the team. The current head of this office was Matthew, or Matt as they called him. Then there was Sanchez, Vaughn, Vic, Taylor, and Blaine. They had a short meeting and went over the distraction job. Hart Lacefield was a forty-two year old career felon and he had killed a man during a robbery at a liquor store. He was a typical loser type and liked booze, women, and drugs, and we were going to do the apprehension at one of his favorite weekend hangout bars.

I was introduced to the new girl, Mona, and we were now on our way to the seventh floor apartment that every Rangeman office had. She flounced off the elevator and declared Rangeman the best beefcake playground ever and announced she had set her sights on the owner; the Mexican whatever would be pussy whipped in no time. I raised an eyebrow.

I wanted to correct her, but I thought I would leave it to Ranger because he deserved this one. Not only was she a wrong fit for Rangeman, but who was the person that hired her? This was serious and someone could get hurt. Her distraction apparel was sluttier than... it just brought brothel to mind. Her bleached blonde hair, fake boobs, and jiggly ass went perfect with her outfit.

I went over with her what happens during a normal distraction and told her that if anything goes wrong the guys would be our back up and we could trust them. I handed her the mic and earpiece. "Whadda' I do with these?" I mumbled, "Stick it up your nasty twat, I'm sure half the bar will be speaking through it at some point tonight anyway." Then I couldn't believe what I watched her do. She wiggled her hips and said, "Aw..kay. I'm ready." Jeez, this skank gave new meaning to bleached blonde brain drain.

When we got in the car to go to the club, Ranger asked me about Mona. I looked at him. "I would fire her and the asshole that hired her." He raised both eyebrows. "Oh yeah, she called you a 'Mexican' whatever." The corners of his mouth twitched and he nodded. Then I snorted, "She's a real brainiac too. I was being sarcastic when she asked me what to do with her mic and I kind of mumbled to stick it up her…and guess where her mic is?"

"Babe." Then he burst out laughing. "Are we going to be okay? I've missed you. I didn't realize how much I would."

"I guess we have to be Ranger. We have to work together sometimes. We built a friendship and have a history. We just screwed it up with the sex." He smiled, but the look in his eyes was sad.

TBC

Some of my new readers are worried. My followers know that I can give a reader whiplash with my twists and surprises. My stories do have meaning and the characters experience real and sometimes raw feelings. They have to work for those HEA's! Stay tuned...