Chapter 25 Marla
MARLA
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t c—
“She’s shivering,” I heard Jasmine say.
“Don’t crowd her,” Amanda said.
“Sh,” Ariel hissed.
Deep breaths. In and out. In and out. Why can’t I take a full breath?
“Marla?” Amanda asked softly.
I tried to answer, but all that came out was a whimper.
“Can you lift your head and look at me, beautiful?” Ariel asked.
There was a sound that I didn’t recognize. It sounded like balloons popping. But not quite that high-pitched. I don’t know, I couldn’t place it. Until I heard a sound that I did recognize.
Metal crunching.
“What was that?” I whispered as I whipped my head up.
I found myself crouched in a corner, my knees pulled to my chest. The girls were gathered around me, and when I took a look around, I realized I plastered myself into the furthest corner from the cellar door that we were ushered through.
“It’s going to be okay,” Ariel said softly as she sat down next to me, cramming herself into the corner with me. “The guys? They’re experts at this kind of stuff. We’re just gonna chill down here, maybe gossip for a little bit, and then before we know it, we’ll be—”
Pop pop pop!
“Get down!” I exclaimed.
Gunfire rang out in droves. Silence came after the crunching metal, and then Hell itself rose up from the ground. Every time a gunshot went off, the ground seemed to shake. Every time I heard yelling or screaming, or someone barking out orders, I flinched.
“So bad, so bad, so bad,” I whispered as I tucked back into myself.
What was going on outside? Was Ranger all right? I tried to remember back to what he told me he was doing. The law firm. Something about the law firm. Why couldn’t I remember?
“Come on,” I growled in frustration.
“You’re doing so good,” Ariel whispered as I felt a hand trailing up and down my back.
Miles. Focus on Miles. He promised he’d be back soon.
Was this something else? Was this related to what Miles and Ghost were doing? I couldn’t help the tears that crept up to my eyes. I’d never been a crier, and now it felt like that was all I did. Cry and take punches.
I wanted a new life.
“It can’t end this way,” I sobbed out softly.
“Nothing is ending,” Amanda said.
“Leave her alone, we’re crowing her,” Jasmine said.
The gunfire died down for a moment and I held my breath.
I imagined Ranger throwing open the cellar door, stumbling down, and scooping me up like he always did.
I imagined him calling me ‘beautiful’ while holding me close to him, like I wasn’t the physical definition of ‘neglect.’ I imagined him smiling at me with that crooked little grin of his underneath the beard he kept trimmed up on his face.
I imagined my lips on his again.
“Ranger,” I whimpered out as renewed tears fell.
My body shivered. My crying wracked my body. Gunfire started up again and I heard yelling. So much yelling. The popping off of the bullets blurred together into one massive sound that grated my ears.
I started scratching them.
“Go away, go away, go away,” I whimpered.
Ranger was dead.
There was no way in hell anyone outside could survive what we heard.
My savior’s gone.
“No, no, no, no,” someone said, but I couldn’t place the voice. “I need help over here!”
Hands grabbed at me. So many hands. My heart grieved.
It cried out for someone that wasn’t there, and I crumbled.
The memories came rushing back. They’d find me if Ranger was dead.
They’d find me and drag me back and put me in the shed for running away and I’d never be able to escape again because they’d probably cut off my feet just for running.
I remembered all of the hands. Hands that used to grab, and grope, and touch, and squeeze.
Hands that would fondle my breasts and tug at my hair.
Hands that would rip my clothes off. Hands that would shove themselves into my underwear while I screamed and cried out for mercy. Hands that would—
“Hey there, beautiful.”
The world came zooming back to my ears, including the chest-heaving crying that I was doing.
Who was that voice?
“There you are,” the soothing voice said. “Can you pick those pretty eyes up for me?”
No, it couldn’t be.
“Marla,” the voice said as it lowered, “you’re all right. Everything’s done. Can you look at me?”
Was that…
“Ranger?” I whispered softly.
The chuckle.
The chuckle is what made me slowly pick up my face from my knees, and I found him crouched there.
Staring at me with those beautiful brown eyes of his.
His long hair glistened in the rays of light that shone from behind him from somewhere, like some sort of angel.
His hand came up, brushing away the tear trails off my cheeks.
“Miles,” I whispered.
The hair of his beard parted, revealing that amazing smile of his. “Hey there, beautiful. You were so brave. I’m so proud of you.”
I blinked once. Twice. Three times, before the words whispered their way from my lips. “You’re alive.”
Pain filled his eyes as he cupped my cheek. “It’ll take a lot more than some bullets to take me out, beautiful.”
His palm. The way it spread over my cheek. That little callous right near the lower part of his palm where his mouse pads rubbed against his skin every time he had to work.
“Oh my God, it’s really you,” I whispered as I rushed out of the corner.
I hit him with a thud, causing him to grunt as his arms enveloped me. I buried my face into the crook of his neck, and just like he always did, he lifted my body into the air. Tears poured into the crook of his neck as I cried softly, relieved that he was still breathing.
Relieved that he was still there.
Relieved that nothing happened to him.
“You’re alive,” I choked out as he turned us around.
“Come on,” he muttered as he held me close, “let’s go get you laid down.”
“Let us know if you need anything,” Amanda said.
“You did really good, girl,” Jasmine said.
“Love you!” Ariel chirped as Ranger ascended the stairs into the morning sunlight.
The sunrise blanketed our walk, and before I knew it, we were safe inside the clubhouse once again. He walked us all the way back to his room, where he kicked his door closed and turned us around long enough to reach out with his fingertips and lock it.
“No one’s getting in here for a while, how’s that sound?” he asked.
“Okay,” I whimpered out with a sniffle.
“Okay, good.”
I just held him. I wasn’t sure how long we were in that storm shelter or whatever, but it felt like an eternity.
An eternity of coming to terms with the fact that I thought Ranger died.
“It’s okay,” he whispered as I felt us lying down, “the scary men are gone, you’re safe, and everything is all right.”
“I-I-I-I—thought you—you were—d-d-d—ead,” I stammered out.
He chuckled as I felt him slide some hair out of my face. “Well, I didn’t,” he said with a proud smile on his face. “Everything went according to plan, and everyone is safe and well.”
My brain came to a grinding halt.
Lizzie.
“Even Lizzie?” I whimpered out.
He brushed his knuckles over my cheek as we shared the same pillow. “Even Lizzie. Do you want to go see her? She’s with Doc right now.”
I should have wanted to jump at the opportunity.
I should have wanted to rush to my childhood best friend.
The one that protected me from bullies growing up.
The person who singlehandedly made my childhood worth it.
The one person I kept up with from my school years that felt more like a sister than anything else.
“I don’t want her to see me like this,” I whispered as my lower lip quivered. “Is that bad?”
Something passed across Ranger’s face before he shook his head. “That’s not bad at all. We can go see her when you’re ready, all right?”
My voice broke with renewed tears. “I’m such a wimp.”
“You are not,” he said with a strong voice he’d never used with me before.
He cupped the back of my head, scooping me close, and made me look into his eyes.
“I’m not letting you get away with that train of thought, Marla.
You are many things, yes. But you are not a wimp.
A wimp wouldn’t have survived what you went through.
A wimp wouldn’t be as brave as you’ve been with me these past few weeks.
A wimp wouldn’t have come rushing out of that closet the instant they realized their friend was in trouble. You, Marla, are not a wimp.”
Tears streaked my cheeks silently as I gazed into his eyes. “I thought you were dead, and I didn’t like that.”
“I’m so sorry, beautiful,” he whispered as he reached his lips out and kissed my forehead.
He kissed the tip of my nose.
The peaks of my cheeks.
Even my chin.
I giggled softly before his nose brushed against mine, those bearded lips of his hovering over my own.
“Ranger,” I murmured.
“No one will ever be able to take me from you, beautiful. You have my word.”
And somewhere from deep within the pit of my gut, the part of me that didn’t want to live in a world he wasn’t part of, got brave enough to lean forward.
Closing the distance between our lips.