“You are safe here,” I said as I stared her down. “I will put a bullet in his head before he does something to hurt you. Okay?”
The woman, shivering in Ranger’s grasp, studied me for a while. Raked her eyes up and down my form. They traveled back up to my mask, and I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking what everyone else wondered.
Why I wore it.
“Okay,” she whispered softly before extending her very dirty arm toward Doc.
“You can put the gun up,” Doc said.
The woman whimpered, so I shook my head. “I’m good.”
“It probably doesn’t help that she’s surrounded by a bunch ofmenright now, anyway,” Amanda said.
Ranger barked. “Anyone who isn’t me, Doc, or Ghost needs to back off. Now.”
The crowd surrounding the woman took a full step back before Ranger shook his head.
“Another.”
The crowd did as he asked, but the woman was still shivering.
“Another,” Ranger commanded.
The crew moved, except for the girls, who slotted themselves onto either side of the woman. Ariel cradled the woman’s feet in her lap while Amanda stroked her fingers through the girl’s hair, and it stilled her enough for Doc to stick the needle into her vein.
“She needs fluids, she’s dehydrated,” he muttered.
“We’ll fix that after he’s done, okay?” Ranger cooed softly toward the sniveling woman. “Get you some water. Maybe a hot bowl of soup? What do you say?”
Oh, he was absolutely going to try and fuck her later.
“You can put the damn gun away,” Doc grumbled as he packed up his things.
“You sure?” I asked.
Doc shot me a look. “Put your gun down, or I’m taking it from you and disassembling it in front of everyone just to watch you struggle to put it back together.”
I stared the man down for a second before I disengaged my gun and holstered it. “There. Better?”
“Much,” he grumbled as he stood up from his stool. “Shouldn’t take me long to run these tests, ma’am. All right?”
“Do you feel comfortable telling us your name yet?” Ranger asked softly.
The woman shook her head so quickly that I honestly wasn’t sure if it was an answer or just her body continuing to shiver.
“Ranger,” Cap said as he took a small step toward them.
The woman flinched hard in his arms, and it made my stomach contents curdle.
This woman was scared for her fucking life.
“Yeah, Cap?” Ranger asked as he scooped the woman closer to him.
I thought it was interesting how she let him do that.
“We really should go over the footage Ghost brought back,” Cap said as he tilted his head. “The girls can get her food and water. Get her settled somewhere where she can get some rest while Doc performs his tests and figures what she needs.”
For the first time ever, I watched Ranger, my brother in crew and in arms, struggle with his answer. “Are you sure I can’t?—?”
