Gavin ran up as
close as he could to get a look inside but saw nothing. He turned around in a
circle searching for clues, then looked at the cabin and saw the upstairs
windows open. He pulled out his Glock, “The house,” he said. Remi and his men
took attack positions around the perimeter of the home. Gavin tried to catch
his breath. Remi was already at the front door and gestured for him to take the
back.
Relief flooded his
system. His vision blurred and he wiped his eyes to clear it. “Hey,” Alexa
said, “You’re not going soft on me, are you?”
“What the hell was that? Why didn’t you wait for us?”
“Rolled out?”
“Well,” she said, “I
was on high alert for booby traps. I saw a bump in the road that looked out of
place…possibly an IED, so I jammed Willow’s backpack on the accelerator and
rolled out and down that incline. Boy will she be pissed.”
“Damn, Alexa. You
could have seriously been hurt. Are they gone?” Gavin asked.
Alexa nodded. “I heard
car engines take off down the dirt road but didn’t want to risk raising my head
to see who it was or what they were driving,” she sighed. “And I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean to worry you.”
“No, no don’t do
that. It’s okay,” he replied, gathering her in his arms again. “I’m just glad
you’re safe.”
The back door opened and Curt stood silhouetted in the dim light, “You’d better get in here,” he said, jutting a thumb over his shoulder. Before they even reached the kitchen the smell of death was in the air. Garcia sat in a chair, his arms hanging limp, his head slumped down.
On Garcia’s chest
was a piece of paper jammed into his torso with a boning knife. The note read,
“You’re next.”
“Shit,” Gavin said. Remi’s
pace quickened as he simply shook his head and murmured obscenities.
Curt looked at Alexa.
“You okay?” She nodded. “You see them leave?”
“No,” she said, with
a tinge of shame on her face. “I had to take cover. But there’s no doubt in my
mind this was Cruz.”
“Yeah. But how did he find this place?” Curt asked. “And more importantly, how did he know we had Garcia in the first place? We were extra careful when we brought him in. It makes no sense.”
“Sure, it does,” Alexa replied. “Besides the two of us there were two other people who knew we were moving Garcia here. Juan and the Coyote, Miguel. I know Juan, he’d never betray me. Not with all the dirt I have on him. It had to be the coyote. Guys like that sell themselves to the highest bidder.”
“Great. And I can only assume he’s no longer amongst the
living.”
“Not with a guy like Cruz,” Alexa agreed.
“Perfect! We lost our only lead and the guy responsible is
already in the wind.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Remi said, moving toward the front window as headlights of an approaching vehicle bounced off the back walls. “They’re back. Take cover!”
“There are too many of them,” Curt shouted as he reloaded
his weapon. “We don’t have enough ammo for this.”
“Then perhaps we should think outside the box,” Remi suggested and motioned toward a stack of glass bottles sitting near the refrigerator. “Cover me.”
Retrieving his personal flask, he filled a couple bottles halfway with his favorite whiskey, and ripped some curtains from the window, creating a few improvised Molotov cocktails. “Now to get these out there while avoiding the numerous bullets coming our way,” Remi said with a smirk. “Any volunteers?”
“Wait!” Alexa protested, placing a hand on his arm.
“Don’t worry, Babe. I got this.” With a quick peck, he
grabbed the bottles and moved into the living room.
“We’ll lay down some cover fire, I’ll open the door and you get
those things outside,” Remi stated and slid into position. “Alright on my
count. 1…2…3.” Swiftly jerking the door open, Alexa, Curt and the rest fired
toward the three vehicles.
Gavin stood from his crouched location, took a deep breath, aimed, and threw. One bottle crashed against the windshield of the closest vehicle. The other landed inside the opened window of another. Three men jumped out screaming as red flames engulfed them, incinerating their skin before each tumbled dead to the ground. The remaining truck quickly turned and sped out of the driveway.
“Yeah. Now let’s get out of here before those guys bring
their own fire to the party,” Gavin added.
“Sorry, this didn’t pan out, but we’ll find another way to
get our answers, Curt. Curt?” When he didn’t respond, Alexa turned toward the
last place she’d seen him and found him crumpled on the floor. “CURT!” she
shouted and rushed forward. The Detective was lying on his side with an obvious
head wound. As she turned him to his back, she noticed the three bullet holes,
one in his left thigh, and upper shoulder. The other went through the right
side of his chest, just below his pectoral. “Oh my god! NO! Curt!”
“We need to get him to the hospital! Call an ambulance,”
Gavin shouted and quickly moved to Alexa’s side.
“Stay with me, Curt, please. Stay with me.” He moaned in pain as he felt Alexa apply pressure to his injuries. His eyes narrowed to slits as he moved in and out of consciousness before finally succumbing to darkness.
Alexa spun a story about the detective receiving an
anonymous phone call regarding the farmhouse and it pertaining to a case he was
working. On arrival, they were fired upon and Curt was injured in the process.
The locals bought it. It didn’t hurt that Remi and his crew had already cleaned
up the other corpses leaving nothing else to be found. Still, they weren’t out
of the woods yet. Curt hadn’t come out of surgery yet and the moment he did,
the cops would pounce. And when they found their stories didn’t match, it would
open up a whole new can of worms.
“Babe?” Gavin said, placing an arm around Alexa’s shoulders as he firmly pulled her into him. “You need to sit. Try and relax. Curt’s going to be fine.”
“He’s going to be fine. He knows he has to. Otherwise, you’d
kill him,” he smirked and felt Alexa take a deep breath against his shoulder.
“You’re ok too. I’m sorry this happened but there’s no use in stressing
yourself like this.”
“What’s taking them so long to update us though?”
“You know what they say: no news is good news. Maybe they
are just giving him some time to rest.”
“You sound so sure of yourself.”
“I am. And Curt wouldn’t want you doing this to yourself either. Now please, come and sit with me. They’ll be out to get us before you know it.” Finally conceding, Alexa took a seat beside Gavin in a row of seats between a couple of vending machines.
“How is he?” she quickly answered, ignoring the look Gavin
gave her.
“Your father suffered a collapsed lung and a few cracked
ribs. It appears when he fell, he hit his head causing a subdural
hematoma and he has a mild-to-moderate concussion. The bullet in his thigh
narrowly missed his femoral artery and we got lucky as it exited just below his
gluteus with no real muscle damage.”
“Unfortunately, the shot to his left shoulder nicked his axillary vein and fractured his scapula. We were able to control the bleeding and repair the damage by removing fragments and inserting a plate and screws. Now, it’s going to take some time to mend and he’ll need physical therapy to regain the use of his arm but, all-in-all, he’ll pull through.”
“He is out of surgery and being moved to a room now. A nurse
will be with you shortly once he’s settled to get you his room number.”
“Thank you!” The doctor nodded and once again disappeared
behind the double doors. A few moments later a nurse appeared to provide them
with the detective’s information.
“See? I told you there was nothing to worry about,” Gavin
said, giving Alexa a squeeze as he led her through the door. “Come on, let’s
see how the old man’s doing.”
Alexa awoke at the sound of the door opening again. It was yet another nurse, coming to check Curt’s vitals before the next shift change. Gavin had gone home to be with Willow while Alexa had insisted on being with Curt until he awakened which still hadn’t happened four hours later. Instead, she had drifted to sleep in that time.
Leaning over, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and
started toward the door. “Where is this man?” She heard a gruff male voice ask.
“Room 320,” the nurse replied in a timid voice.
Something was wrong. Only family was admitted into this wing of the hospital. Even Alexa had to lie about her relationship with Curt in order to see him. Peeking through a crack in the door, she saw three men at the nurses’ station. One roughly questioned the night nurse before quietly sequestering him into a back room while the other two strode through the hallway toward her. They didn’t appear to be police or hospital security yet the bulge on their hips was unmistakable.
As Scar Face neared Curt’s room, Alexa spotted a security
guard making his rounds. In ten more steps, the unwitting man was going to come
face-to-face with danger. Everything happened in a matter of moments. The security
guard unbuttoned his coat. Alexa noticed his hand move toward the Glock on his utility
belt, caught the guard’s eye and shook her head. But the guard drew his weapon
and jumped up. “Security! Drop your weapon.”
Both goons stepped back surprised. Bald Thug whipped his automatic handgun from his holster, and both pointed their weapons at the security guard. Alexa took it all in, measuring, calculating.
“The only thing I’ll drop is you, son, if you don’t put that
weapon down right now.”
Suddenly, Alexa stepped into the center of the stand-off,
hands raised, and speaking in a congenial, easygoing manner. “Gentleman,
please. There is no need for this. Look at where you are. There are very sick
people just on the other side of those doors. We can settle this without
bloodshed.”
The guard appeared about to nod, when he shoved Alexa aside and fired at scar face. The bullet grazed the thug’s shoulder and his gun fell. In the same instant, Baldy shot the guard twice in the chest. The security guard was blown off his feet, landing across the room. As Bald Thug turned to shoot Alexa.
Still holding the guy, Alexa grabbed a letter opener from the
desk and stabbed the brute once each in the stomach, heart, and throat,
dropping him as blood spurted.
Before she knew it Scar Face was up. He tackled her, pinning
her onto a countertop, roped his hands around her throat, and began strangling
her. Wheezing, Alexa grabbed a flower vase and slammed it against her
assailant’s temple.
The man fell toward her. Alexa jammed a glass drink bottle, skinny-end first, into Scar Face’s mouth and down his throat. The thug stood, choking, eyes bulging.
Alexa walked to the fallen guard’s side, who was still alive;
barely. “Shit…” he groaned.
“Don’t talk, I’ll get you some help.” Over her shoulder, she heard the nurses’ office door open. The guard’s eyes grew wide. Instantly, she drew the man’s backup from his ankle holster and fired three quick rounds behind her. The third man fell, the nurse screamed and the elevator door opened with the arrival of two more security guards.
The nurse who had been held captive rushed to Alexa as she
called for help. Two other nurses and a doctor aided in getting the guard moved
to an operating room.
As she stood to survey the damage, room doors began opening with patients filing out into the hallway to check out the commotion, including Curt who slowly staggered from bed. “Oh, NOW you wake up,” Alexa joked and headed toward him.
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