by Haus, Jean
“But—”
“Go!” he urges and pushes me toward the connecting door.
The banging continues as I stumble next door through the darkness. Ping is already up. I almost run into him. I explain Jai’s plan in an incoherent rush and he pulls a disoriented Chang from the bed. With shaky hands, I turn the lock after they leave, and try to catch my breath. This can’t be happening. How the hell did they find us so fast?
Shouts ring from the other room. More banging ensues followed by a resounding crack. Grunts and bumps follow. Furniture splitting. Something or someone crashes into the wall next to me. Imagining Jai, Chang, or Ping hurt, I stifle a scream with my hand and force myself to put my coat on and slide a pair of jeans over my shorts. Digging in my bag for the keys, I peek through a slit in the curtains. The parking lot looks empty of people. The wall next to me vibrates. My eyes scan the lot again. I can’t see a soul. One more bump against the wall and I’m out the door.
Like a four year old, I tiptoe to the Mercedes. The black Town car parked next to the SUV has me shaking inside, but I force myself to keep calm. Grunts and shouts tumble out of the broken door. I hit unlock. Crash. Glass shatters onto the sidewalk followed by Chang’s voice yelling in Chinese. I slide into the driver’s seat and slowly pull the door closed.
I dig for the phone in my pocket. Okay, almost home free. A body flies out of the window and tumbles across the sidewalk. I flick open the phone as the man pushes himself off the sidewalk. He stumbles forward. I push Chang’s number. He’s next to me. I hit send. He wipes his face, shakes his head, and his eyes meet mine. I choke on air.
I’m staring at Kevin’s bloody face, something I never wanted to see again. Terror rushes through me. My entire body shudders with it while the muted sound of ringing fills the silence. Kevin jumps at the door. Chang’s voice mail clicks on. Finally, I move and tap the lock just as his hand finds the handle.
He spits, yells, and beats on my door.
My trembling fingers drop the keys. He beats on my window. I face forward, refusing to look at him as I reach and search. The key is wedged under the seat. My heavy breath fills the gaps of sound in between the pounding next to me. I use a fake nail to flick the key out. Glass cracks next to my head when I shove the key into the ignition. Still refusing to look at him, I throw the vehicle into reverse and squeal into a three sixty. Kevin chases. I shoot past him and pull right up to the broken door. My friends stumble out. Dark shadows tumble out after them. I slam on the accelerator before the doors are shut and squeal out of the parking lot.
I drive toward the expressway as if a trophy and a million dollars wait at some imaginary finish line. Heavy pants fill the car. The dark Pennsylvania landscape passes by in a blur. Behind me, endless black. There’s no way their Town Car can catch up. The speedometer hits one hundred. Fortunately, the road at four in the morning is deserted. My nerves almost instantly calm.
“Where to now?” I ask in a light tone.
“A hospital?” Jai says in a shaky voice.
His words have me snapping on the overhead light.
When I look at him, I cuss then swerve.
Chapter 33~Snow
A smear of blood runs down his face, but that’s not what has my lungs constricting. His ripped pants allow me to see the long, vertical cut on his leg. Almost the length of his thigh, the slash runs down the side and curls under his knee. Scarlet liquid makes a pond on the leather seat. Did one of them have a freakin’ sword? A machete? Staring at the oozing gash, I almost run off the road again.
“Ahhhh!” Chang shouts. “Slow down!”
There’s so much blood. Too much blood. I push the guilt and fear raging through me down. If Jai’s going to live, I have to get it together. I pull my gaze back to the road and push the pedal to the floor. “Chang get up here and find the nearest hospital.”
“Why?” he asks. “Are you going to kill us with your driving?”
If he doesn’t do it now, I’m going to kill him with my bare hands. “Jai’s bleeding to death.”
Chang pops his head between the seats, looks at the bloody leg, gasps, and immediately presses his fingers to the GPS screen.
I make myself concentrate on the road not the sharp scent in the air.
Ping’s head pops up around Chang. “Holy shit!”
“Don’t just stare at it. Get something clean and put some pressure on it,” I shout.
Bags crinkle in the back. Ping’s arm comes around the seat and he pushes t-shirts against the wound. Jai flinches and moans at the force.
“Hold on, Jai,” I say, pushing the accelerator more.
“Too. Much. Blood,” he whispers.
I glance at the cut. It just keeps gushing. Ping scoots closer to use both hands. Even as he presses, blood continues to gush out. The shirts turn red.
My fingers grip the steering wheel. “Fifteen minutes, we can’t be more than fifteen minutes away. Hold on for fifteen minutes.” I’m not sure if my litany is for him or me. When Chang sits back, I glance at the screen. Eighteen miles. I can do eighteen miles in way less than fifteen minutes. “Chang get the phone number off the GPS, tell them we’re coming. If they ask, a mugger attacked us.” I take a deep breath of the acrid air. “Jai, do you know your blood type?”
The shake of his head is slight.
Ping wiggles over to let Chang get to the GPS.
“Don’t release the pressure,” I yell into Ping’s face. He doesn’t complain.
In the back, Chang talks to the people at the hospital. I get the Mercedes up to one-sixty and keep it there. Two semi-trucks honk when I pass by. I don’t honk back. Just watch the black road edged in snow before me.
The click of the phone shutting sounds from the backseat and Chang says, “They’re ready and waiting.”
Okay, okay, okay. Now we just have to get there in time. I drive with one eye on the road and the other on Jai. Each passing minute, he gets worse. His eyes are now glassy, his breathing labored. I get up to one-seventy.
“Two miles to the next exit,” the computer says.
“Two miles, do you hear that Jai?” Ping asks.
Jai grunts back.
I glance at the screen. Four miles total. Two miles left once we’re off the highway. Hope surges in me. Guilt contracts. We’re almost to the exit. Jai is going to be all right. But when I glance in the rearview mirror, the sight behind me steals all the air from my lungs.
Chapter 34~Snow
Blue swirling lights fill the interior of the vehicle. I ignore them. The leather in my grip and the steel of the accelerator under my foot hold my attention. I ignore the shadow of the following car in my rearview mirror too. I’m on a life and death mission.
Chang grips my headrest. “Are you going to stop?”
“No.”
“Eight hundred feet until the exit,” the computer says.
I slow for the ramp.
“How are you going to get away from him?” Ping asks.
“I’m not.”
“Turn right,” the computer says.
The cop is on my ass.
“He’s going bump you!” Ping shouts.
I roll through the stop sign and the hit the gas. I roll through a blinking red light too. Other than the traffic light, the only place with lights on is a deserted gas station. All the other stores are dark. I now drive at the speed of a turtle. The possibility of other drivers makes me go sixty miles an hour, not the cop on my tail. I can’t help pushing the accelerator a bit more when we pass a hospital sign.
“We’re almost there,” I say in the silence of the blue-lit interior.
Jai’s eyelids flicker.
The tangy smell of blood filling the car has my stomach churning.
“Turn left fifty feet ahead,” the computer says.
I scan the intersection then speed through the stop sign. A tall brick building looms ahead. Lights dot some of the windows. We’re almost there. I quell my excitement and continue to concentrate.
&nbs
p; My eyes search for the emergency entrance. “Chang, Ping we were attacked by burglars at the motel. We were sleeping. We escaped in the car, and realized Jai was hurt. We’re on our way to Cleveland to visit my friends.” I glance at their blue illuminated faces in the rearview mirror. “Do you got it?”
“Yeah,” Chang says. “Burglars, Cleveland, and attack.”
“Ping?” I ask. He nods. “Do not add anything else. Stay to the truth as much as possible. So our stories will match.” I accelerate up the drive and slam on the brakes in front of the emergency entrance. People in white come rushing out with a gurney.
“Open his door!” I yell at Ping and the white coats pull Jai out in seconds.
My door opens and a blue uniform heaves me out. While my hands stay curled as if still holding the steering wheel, he shoves me against the truck. Hard. Flips me over. Hard. Then snaps cuffs on my wrists. Hard. His face is hard too, and angry. But I don’t care. I got Jai here. Hopefully in time.
With a hand on my arm, he puts his head in the driver’s side. “You two stay put.”
Ping opens the door and tries to get out. “Hey,” he shouts as the officer pulls me over to his car. “She was saving our friend. He was bleeding to death!”
“Get back in the vehicle now,” the officer snaps. He whips open the back door of his car and throws me in without a word.
While I wait, fuzzy voices come over the radio. I let out a long stream of air and lean back, crushing my hands. Behind the steel mesh, I watch him make Ping and Chang sit on the curb while the cop searches the vehicle. I finally notice—I’d been too worried about Jai—they look battered and bruised also. Chang has a fat lip and a gash along one eyebrow while Ping’s eye is almost swollen shut. Guilt crawls through me.
The officer tows Ping to the other side of the Mercedes and pulls out a note pad. Great. Ping will be the first one to mess up our story. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Perhaps I will get sent home. I glance at the hospital doors. Jai will live. At least that’s what the hope running through my veins tells me. Nothing else matters at this point. While he interviews Chang, my bound hands fall asleep underneath me. Chang scowls at the officer and argues. It doesn’t help. His argument just makes everything take longer. I lean forward to relieve the pressure on my wrists, but the stupid fake nails stab my palms. Finally, the cop makes butthead number two go back to the curb.
At his car, the officer hauls me out and leans me against the trunk. After asking for my name, address, and phone number, he wants to know what happened. His tone is clipped, still angry. I relate the short story I told the buttheads to say while keeping my voice even and calm. I’m trying to be compliant. I want to get this over with so I can find out about Jai’s status. I got him here, but was it in time?
He pulls my license from his pocket—he must have found it in my bag. “What you did—”
“Excuse me,” a woman dressed in nurse’s scrubs says from the curb. The cop frowns at her. “We need someone to give us some information about the patient.”
“How is he?” I ask without keeping the anticipation from my tone.
She smiles. “He’s stable now.” I sag in relief. “Apparently you got him here just in time.” She turns to the stone face in blue. “So when can she come in for paperwork?”
“After I finish writing her citation,” he snaps.
The nurse lifts an eyebrow. “Really? She saved his life.”
His jaw tightens and he pulls out a pen. “And luckily didn’t destroy other lives with her reckless driving.”
The nurse shakes her head. “I’ll be waiting for you inside, dear.”
I nod. She gives the cop one last glare before going inside.
He doesn’t look up just keeps writing. The scrawl of his pen sounds loud in the silence of the night. “What I should be doing is dragging your ass to station for evading but,” he rips the ticket from the pad, “since your friend’s life was in danger, we’ll settle with a ticket.” He sets the piece of paper on the trunk and pulls a key from his belt.
I turn around.
“Three points,” he says, putting the key in the lock, “beats a night in jail.” While my mind agrees with him, my free skin sings with relief. “Here’s the thing,” he turns me around and pokes my collarbone with his pen, “what you’re lucky about is the fact you didn’t hurt anyone else.”
I nod. The last thing I want is to get into a debate with this guy.
“Those points will go on your record in New York.”
“I understand.”
He gives me one last stern look. “Go park your car in the lot. You can’t leave it in front of emergency. And get that front headlight fixed.”
“Thank you,” I say and snatch the ticket and license off the trunk.
He stops me with a hand on my elbow. “After we investigate what happened at that motel, you may be contacted again.”
“Okay,” I say, thinking good luck with that. My phone’s long gone.
Finally, he lets go of my arm. “No more speeding young lady.”
I nod, though at the rate we keep getting found, I’ll probably be speeding again soon.
Hours later in the waiting room, Ping repeats, “I can’t believe that hard ass just let you go.”
He exclaimed this while we filled out Jai’s paperwork—what little information there was to fill out. He said this before and after the doctor explained Jai needed several stitches and a blood transfusion since an artery had been nicked. The last time he said it, I sent him to the car to clean up the blood while I told myself if he says it one more time, I‘m going to put him in a chokehold.
“Ping,” I start but the nurse comes out.
She clutches a clipboard. “He’s been transferred to the fifth floor room five eighteen. You can go see him, but he’s probably still out.”
We’re up in seconds. “Thanks,” we say in unison.
The room is dark and Jai is out, but seeing him breathe is enough. An IV hooked to his wrist drips. A blanket covers his propped up leg. His sleeping face—though battered and bruised—appears calm. The three of us sit, quiet and relieved. Hours later, nurses have come and gone. The buttheads sleep with heads tilted back. I watch and wait until at last his eyes blink open.
I’m at his side in seconds. He looks awful, drugged, and in pain. I hold in a wince as his dark eyes slowly focuses on me. “Hi,” I say, setting my hands on the bed rail while his bruised face has guilt running through me.
“You,” he says in a dry voice, “can’t stay. Leave me here.”
Panic rushes through me, even overrides the remorse that his first words are about my safety. “Leave you?”
With heavy lidded eyes he stubbornly says, “Take Ping and Chang and go. They always find us.”
Thinking of Smith finding him helpless, I grip the rail. “No, I can’t do that.”
He turns his face toward the wall. “Nivi just go. They’ll be here soon.”
I stare at him. I’ve been so worried about him; I forgot what brought us here. The weight of the last three days hits me. Implausible, unrelenting days. I collapse into the chair. My hands pull at my hair. I can’t leave him. I can’t take him. Something has to give.
Chapter 35~Snow
Smith finding Jai in the room alone and raising his gun. Mali’s long nails wrapped around a pillow and suffocating him. The Tong’s fists beating him until his leg turns into mush. These are the images flashing through my mind as I contemplate leaving Jai alone. As I stare at him staring at the wall, my spine hardens into a steely line. He almost died saving me from the Tong. I will not leave him here.
“Tomorrow, we’ll leave tomorrow,” I finally say in a firm tone.
“It is tomorrow and it’s already too late.” He still stares at the wall. “Just go.”
I shoot up. “I’m not leaving you here!”
His clouded gaze meets mine. “You can’t take that chance.”
My jaw hardens and through my teeth I say, “I won’t leave you.”<
br />
He shakes his head. “What are you going to do if someone shows up?”
I cross my arms. “Deal with it.”
A light knock sounds and a nurse comes in and sets a plastic cup on the dresser next to the bed. “Oh good, you’re awake.” She says and pulls at the blanket. “I need to look at your leg.” The black threads are stark against the whiteness of his skin. I gape at the long gash crisscrossed with stitches. Several stitches? There has to be over thirty. Just looking at them, I feel woozy.
I stagger back a bit. “When,” Jai’s jaw tightens at her prodding and my voice breaks, “will he be released?”
She continues poking the skin of his leg. “The doctor will write his prescriptions in the morning, but we usually don’t release until late afternoon.” Jai’s mouth forms a tight line when her fingers get closer to the wound. “I’m not sure how we’re going to deal with his case though. I’ve never seen a case where we couldn’t get hold of a legal guardian at least.”
Shit. I had a feeling when Chang had blurted out Jai’s birth date, the age thing might be a problem. “So omitting the prescription he’ll be ready to leave today?”
She covers Jai’s leg again. “We like to keep an eye on transfusions for several hours. So we’ll see.” She pulls some pills from her pocket. “These will help with the pain.” She puts them on the table next to Jai’s bed along with a cup of water. “Drink as much as you can. It will help.” She points at the IV drip. “If you have to use the restroom that rolls.” Jai pops the pills in his mouth, drinks some water, and falls back onto the pillows. The nurse glances at me from the door. “The pills will make him sleep more.”
I nod while Jai’s face becomes panicked.
Once she leaves, he says, “I need to be alert.”
I resist rolling my eyes. “For what? What are you going to do after getting a gaping wound stitched up and a blood transfusion? Beat them senseless with a pillow?” He scowls at me. “Go to sleep so you’ll be ready to leave. I’ll stay awake.”