Chapter 28 Ranger
RANGER
After slipping into some clothes, I held my hand out for Marla.
I wasn’t sure if she’d take it. Being brave enough to take what you wanted physically was one thing, but broadcasting that with something like our fingers intertwined while we went to Doc’s clinic on the compound was something else entirely.
I smiled when she slipped her hand into mine.
“Ready whenever you are, Miles,” she said as she smiled up at me.
My God, I was such a goner with her.
I squeezed her hand before we started out of my room.
At first, there wasn’t much. I heard Cap in the background muttering something before Ariel giggled.
I heard someone else in the kitchen chopping something.
I wondered who’s night it was to cook. I peeked into the kitchen just as we passed it to head for the front door of the clubhouse, and I watched Ghost peer over his shoulder.
His eyes darted to our interlocked fingers.
His eyes fell on Marla for a moment.
And then, he slid those eyes to me.
He tossed me a playful wink.
I flicked him off.
He barked with laughter before he went back to chopping up his vegetables as I led Marla out of the clubhouse.
“Oh my God,” Marla gasped breathlessly.
As we stood there on the porch, it took me a moment to gather my wits and realize that I probably should have taken us out the back.
While there weren’t any bodies or anything lying about, there was still a great deal of crushed metal.
One of the cars was still tipped over, the logo for the law firm staring us down like a taunt.
Marla tucked against me and I heard her swallow as we gazed out along the sandy parking lot where we usually parked our bikes after a nice, long ride.
The dusty ground was covered in blood.
“Doc’s still with her!” Scout called out as he walked around with a large broom, kicking up dust and sweeping dirt over the blood to dry it up.
“Miles,” Marla whispered as her eyes cased around.
“Come on,” I said, urging her to the side of the porch. “Let’s get you to Lizzie.”
“Right,” she whispered as she finally turned with me, “Lizzie. Yeah. Okay.”
“Come here, I gotcha.”
I released her hand only to thread my arm around her waist. I wanted to tuck her close and keep her away from everything bad and everything evil for the rest of her life.
My heart came alive when she leaned against me.
I felt her hand come up and press its way into my stomach, like she needed a place to rest it and wanted to make sure I was still there.
I wasn’t sure when I fell in love with this woman.
But I tripped and stumbled right into it.
It seemed to be a habit my brothers and I indulged in.
“Is everyone okay?” Marla asked softly.
We stepped up onto the small porch of Doc’s space. “Oh yeah. Everyone’s okay.”
“You’re sure? Because that was a lot of—”
“None of it is ours,” I said, knowing she was talking about the blood.
“Oh.”
I looked down at her with my hand settled on the doorknob to make our way in. “You okay?”
She stared at the door and drew in a deep breath. “She’s in there? Lizzie?”
I nodded. “She is.”
She looked up at me. “Is it bad? What they did to her?”
I shook my head. “Not nearly as bad as the condition you were in when you found us.”
Tears of relief sprang to her eyes. “Oh, thank God.”
My beautiful goddess.
So worried for everyone else nowadays.
I dropped one last kiss to her forehead before turning the doorknob.
I eased the door open, and at first, when Marla stepped inside, she braced herself.
She smiled and held out her arms, only to be greeted with the living situation that Doc had going on inside what he called his ‘hospital home.’ It wasn’t big or anything.
Maybe a thousand square feet of space. But his medical area was decked out with as much shit as we could find him to work with. Machinery, included.
“Come on, it’s this door,” I said as I reached for the left one.
I heard a gasp as I whipped the door open, and a pair of gray eyes with wild blonde hair whipping about widened.
“Em?” Lizzie asked breathlessly.
I looked down at Marla, only for her face to crumble. She released my hand. “Lizzie, oh my God.”
“Em! It’s you!”
Doc rolled his chair out of the way just in time. I smiled as Marla took off from my side, slingshotting herself like a bat out of hell toward the woman sitting on the patient table. Lizzie hopped off the edge, only to open her arms. And when the two women collided, the tears began.
I couldn’t understand their babbling to one another, there were so many tears.
I smiled until my cheeks hurt while the girls held one another. Lizzie rubbed her hands all around Marla, her words not known to my ears as she wiped the tears flooding her face. Marla crumbled into her arms, and it took everything I had not to run to her and scoop her up.
I knew she needed her best friend.
And her best friend needed her.
I peeked over at Doc and found something I didn’t expect to see, though.
There was an intensity behind his eyes that I didn’t know him to be capable of.
The thing about Doc is that he was our pacifist. Out of all of us, he was the least prone to using violence to get what he wanted.
He took an oath, he always says, and unless his life or the life of someone he loves is on the line, he didn’t resort to the violent tactics. We all learned in the military life.
But his piercing gaze sat unwavering on Lizzie.
Huh. So that’s what Ghost meant whenever he saw me and Marla together.
“You’re so thin,” Lizzie whispered breathlessly.
“It’s actually better than what it was a few weeks ago,” Marla whispered back.
Lizzie whimpered. “My God, what have they done to you?”
“What the hell were you thinking going after me like that? They could’ve killed you.”
“I came back after my deployment and you weren’t there,” Lizzie whimpered with a sniffle. “You’re always there at the airport. Always. And you didn’t show up, and I knew something was wrong.”
“You’re gonna be in so much trouble at work,” Marla whispered.
“You let us take care of that,” I piped up.
Both of the girls gasped as they turned to face me, and Doc finally piped up. “We won’t let you be in trouble with work. But you do need to hop back up here. These wounds aren’t going to stitch themselves closed.”
Lizzie looked over at the man before nodding. Then she turned back to Marla. “Will you stay with me?”
Marla shook her head. “I’m never leaving you again. Now, get up there and let Doc work his magic. Don’t put him through hell like I put him through it.”
“You had every reason to,” is all Doc said as he put down his suture kit and rethreaded it.
“You guys want drinks or anything?” I asked as I watched Marla climb up onto that patient table with Lizzie.
“Sure.”
“Yeah, thank you.”
I smiled as I looked down at Doc. “What about you? You thirsty?”
Doc nodded. “I could drink.”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “Mind if I raid your kitchen?”
Doc just waved his hand dismissively at me. “Don’t make a mess.”
“I’ll make sure to flood things on the way out.”
Doc shot me a look and the girls giggled, but then he snapped his head right back to Lizzie.
The two girls looked at one another and Lizzie nudged Marla, like something unspoken passed in between the two of them.
Marla looked over at me and smiled so sweetly.
There was a light in her eye that finally returned.
I tossed her a wink before I looked over at Doc.
Only to find him staring at Lizzie like she held the sun if she wasn’t so banged up.
Oh yeah, this is exactly what Ghost meant when he saw me and Marla.
“Be right back, you guys,” I said before I backtracked out of the room.
Finally, things felt like they were on the up and up.