Chuy, eyes on the money, licked his lips before answering.
“Red dogs,” he whispered and pointed to his neck. “Bunch of red dogs running into it.”
Tom stared at Chuy not believing. Red dog tattoos on the neck meant the South Side Boys, a gang out of Los Angeles. Whatever was going down, it was happening at the women’s shelter. Tom shook his head, trying to think, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Then his heart stopped. Ruby.
Tom gave Chuy the bills, pulled out his throw-away phone, and dialed Dorris’s number. She picked up on the first ring. Tom heard sirens and men shouting in the background.
“Agent Sagebrush,” she said panting. “Is that you, Tom? Where are you?”
“It’s me, is there a problem?” Tom asked, panic clawing in his chest.
Dorris Sagebrush, an old friend from the academy, worked in his DEA group. She kept him in the loop despite Lopez’s gag order.
“It’s that gang-banger you had me watching, Antonio, I saw him in the area an hour ago. A patrol car called in the BOLO and Lopez said to grab him,” Dorris breathed. “We had him, Tom. We had him, but he slipped through the net. I don’t know where he is. We don’t know where he’s going.”
Tom took off through the alley, running for his car parked down the street. He yelled into the phone.
“I think he’s hitting the shelter,” Tom shouted. “He’s going for Ruby.”
He dove into his car and dialed the agent watching Ruby. Hands shaking, he waited through the rings. Scott picked up on the fifth. Tom could barely control his voice.
“Where’s Ruby?”
29
Teresa greeted me with a warm smile when I walked into the shelter. She stood at the front desk arranging flowers. Pink and fuchsia carnations bobbed as she moved them into place. I knew she loved this quiet time of the day when most of the residents were eating lunch.
I was doing something to stop my world from falling apart by finding those files. Besides, what could happen to me in broad daylight, surrounded by witnesses?
“Hey, Ruby, guess what?”
“What?”
“Downey stayed here last night. She ate a big dinner and asked to stay. I found her a bed in the children’s section.”
Genuinely surprised, I smiled appreciatively. “Was she still here in the morning?”
“Yup.”
“That’s wonderful news, Teresa.”
“Well, we owe it all to you, Ruby. Those girls don’t trust anyone else out here. She said she even gave another girl one of your cards to the clinic.”
There was no clinic and the truth was, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to rebuild.
“Oh, we told her she could come here for now,” Teresa said quickly, misreading my expression.
“Oh, that’s good, then.”
I set my medical bag down and wandered into her little kitchen area to get some coffee. The file cabinets in Teresa’s office stood facing me. I bit my lip. Maybe I could just explain what I was looking for instead of sneaking behind her back.
If she was caught helping me she could get into trouble and lose the shelter. No, that wouldn’t be good. I could grab the files, throw them in my medical bag, and go read them at a coffee shop. Lost in thought, a loud noise ripped my attention back.
Outside, I heard tires screech to a stop. The hair on my arms stood on end. I peered out the window and froze. Three young guys flew out of a souped-up car and raced towards the shelter. I turned and yelled at Teresa while running for the front desk.
“Teresa, lock the front door!”
Adrenaline burned as I wrapped my fingers around the deadbolt. A second too late, the door slammed open and sent me flying.
Teresa screamed.
I landed near the coffee table in the make-shift living room. Twisting onto my back, I saw two young men. Tattoos and T-shirts told me they weren’t cops. One of them, the shorter one, pointed his gun at me and snarled.
“You Dr. McKinney?”
I nodded dumbly.
The guy with the gun turned to his partner, a man well over six feet with the muscles of a weightlifter, and nodded. “Grab her, Tiny.”
Tiny reached down and hoisted me over his shoulder like I was a rag doll.
Teresa shouted for them to stop, but they turned their guns on her. She put hands over her mouth, shaking.
The gun was in my medical bag. Why hadn’t I grabbed it?
“Please don’t do this,” I begged through ragged breaths.
“Be still, Doc,” Tiny grunted.
I struggled against his large arms, but Tiny’s shoulder dug into my stomach making it hard to breathe. I craned my neck to see Tiny’s partner. He was gone, in another room.
Teresa’s terrified gaze met mine. Silent tears streamed down her face.
“Take her to the car,” the partner shouted from deeper in the shelter.
I panicked; moms and kids were in the back of the building. What was he going to do with them? Tiny hoisted me further on his shoulder knocking the wind out of me. He bounded down the front steps and the jarring made flashes of light explode behind my eyes. The third guy stood by the car near the open trunk. Heart racing, my mouth went dry.
“No, please don’t!” I screamed, but he looked at me with dead eyes.
Tiny unceremoniously dumped me in the trunk.
Thrusting my arms out, I screamed as they slammed the lid down. Crying, I banged on the metal above. The car sped off, ramming me against the sides. Panic squeezed my lungs and I clenched my eyes shut.
Please don’t leave me here alone, Lord. I don’t want to die.
A singular thought resonated in my head and I clung to it desperately.
Trust me.
30
Tom
Tom skidded to a stop in front of the shelter, his gut lurching when he spotted the squad cars and ambulances. He scrambled out and ran towards the shelter’s front door. Lopez spotted him and moved to block his path. Tom tried to push back, but they were ready for him. Lopez and Dorris grabbed his arms and propelled him backwards.
“What happened?” Tom demanded, struggling against his boss and friend. “What did they do to her?”
“We don’t know yet, Tom!” Lopez shouted.
Dorris lost her grip and Tom yanked away from Lopez, racing towards the house.
“Tom, wait!” Dorris yelled. “Tom, she’s not there!”
Tom stopped in his tracks. He eyed the ambulance. Had more than one gone out? Bile rising in his throat, he turned. “Is she hurt?”
“We don’t know, Tom. She’s missing.”
Tom shook his head, and a million horrible scenarios sped through his thoughts. Whirling on his boss, he shouted, angry and desperate. “Who took her? Was it Antonio? I told you he was involved, Lopez. I told you it wasn’t her dealing!”
“I see that, Tom.” Lopez said. “I don’t know what is going on here. The guys who took her, the shelter’s manager said they were South Side Boys.”
Tom remembered the informant’s description of the red dog tattoo. The South Side Boys and the Culebra gang hated each other. What was going on here?
“SSB are a black gang. They don’t do business with Culebra, and we never found any connection between Jason’s club and gangs.” Dorris said quietly. “W-we don’t know how they’re involved.”
Tom tried to hold in the panic. “What…what are we doing to find her?”
Lopez nodded towards the shelter. “We’re closing off the area, and we put the description and car information we got from the shelter’s manager out there. We’re going to find her, Tom. We’ll get her back.”
Dread crawled in his gut. If Antonio had her, she was already dead. Walking away, he went and sat in the front seat of his car. His soul ached.
Please, Lord. Please don’t take her from me.
31
The car stopped. I put my arms over my head and got ready to scream and kick. I heard keys in the trunk lock and then the lid lifted up. The worr
ied face of an old woman stared down and I froze. Eyes adjusting to the outside light, I registered blood splatters on her dark skin and hair. Tears ran down her face and she reached out to me.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please help my baby!”
Tiny appeared next to her, reached in, and hauled me out of the trunk. We were in a nearby neighborhood. I recognized the houses and corner shops. Tiny went to put me on his shoulder, but I put my hands out.
“I-I can walk.”
He looked at me, unconvinced. “You won’t run?”
“No, I promise.”
He let go, and I followed him and the grandma into the small house. I’d seen her around the neighborhood. Her daughter, a drug addict, had left her with two grandsons to raise on her own. The boys, thirteen and sixteen, come into the clinic for flu shots in the winter. She led me through a small living room crammed with the guys who’d taken me. They sat on the couches and floor looking worried. The guy who’d ordered Tiny around still had his gun on his lap.
Grandma pulled me down a hall. We entered a small room and I gasped. On the old wood bed, crowded by bloody sheets, was one of the grandsons, the younger one. He jumped when we entered, and his gun hand flew up, shaking as he aimed at us.
I raised my hands, and then turned to the grandma. “Your name is Maddie, am I right?”
She nodded, with a trembling lip.
“We have to call an ambulance,” I urged her.
She shook her head.
“Darnell won’t let me,” she sobbed and nodded towards the boy on the bed. “He said they’ll put him in jail, and he said he’d shoot any cop who walked through the door if I brought them.”
“I will,” Darnell wheezed. “They won’t believe me, anyways.”
I stared at the gun in his shaking hand and decided he could probably still hit me if I tried to run.
“I’ll just keep this for you, Doc,” Tiny said and held up the .22 as he handed over my medical bag.
I only had one choice. Get this kid patched up and get out of there.
“Let’s see what’s going on with you, then,” I said.
Darnell motioned with the gun for me to come closer. “Don’t try nothing funny.”
I knelt on the floor next to him. A gunshot wound tore through the middle of his upper right arm, just below the shoulder. The bullet probably cracked the humerus bone, breaking it. I dug out some gauze and latex gloves. He watched my every move. I pulled on the gloves and used my best doctor voice. “Darnell, I need to see if there’s an exit wound, OK?”
He nodded and gritted his teeth, trying to lean forward. Sweat broke out on his face as I slipped my hand behind his arm and found the exit wound. His arm didn’t deform with the movement. His bone might not have a complete break, but merely a lengthwise fracture. That would be the best scenario. If his bone cracked in half, there’d be jagged edges to sever veins.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood, and you’re in a lot of pain.”
Darnell looked at me with glassy eyes. “No kidding lady, I could have told you that.”
“What I’m saying is, I’m afraid you’ll go into shock and die if I don’t get you into a hospital.”
His hand shot up and the barrel of the gun pressed under my chin before I could react. His grandma yelped. Tiny and his partner ran to the doorway.
“Darnell,” Tiny’s partner yelled. “What are you doing?”
“You stay out of this, Paul,” Darnell yelled to him. “This is your fault.”
I watched the standoff and realized Paul was the older brother. I understood the desperation on his face, now. His little brother, Darnell, was in trouble.
“Look, we can deal with that later, OK?” Paul said, his hands up. “For now, you got to let the Doc help you.”
“She wants to call the cops!” Darnell yelled back. “I can’t go to jail, not like this, I won’t make it through the morning.”
“I don’t want to call the cops; I want to get you help!” I yelled.
Everyone looked at me startled. Angry, I jerked away from the gun and knocked it out of Darnell’s weak grip. It skidded across the ripped carpet into the closet. I pointed a bloody glove at Paul, my temper flaring.
“Your brother is going to die. Not in a few days, not in a few hours, I mean within minutes. The bullet probably nicked some major vessels.” I picked up a bloody sheet and shook it. “He doesn’t have much more time.”
Paul pointed his gun at me. “He better not die, Ruby-D.”
“This isn’t a magic bag, Paul,” I yelled and kicked at my medical bag. “He needs me to clean the wound. He needs x-rays. Especially if I need to set the bone!”
“Then we’ll take him to your clinic,” Paul yelled back.
Shocked, I stared at him for a few seconds. Then I let my hand fall to my side, threw my head back, and laughed. Paul looked at me with apprehension and the grandma wrung her tiny wrinkled hands.
Tiny moved forward and pushed Paul’s gun down. “Her clinic burned down, man. She don’t even got a cot.”
Worry, desperation, and anger flashed over Paul’s face. He shook his head. “Then we have to think of something. He messed up bad, and they’ll get him.”
“Who?” I asked.
Paul’s gun went back up and I jumped.
“Don’t worry, who,” Paul growled. “Just know that you better fix him, or I’ll shoot you myself!”
I looked at Paul and then at Darnell. He’d started to shake. This kid was going to die if I didn’t think of something other than an ambulance. My gaze wandered to the floor with blood splattered on the old wood.
Red spilled on the floor. Like paint.
I bit my lip, debating. Finally, I looked at Paul. “We can sneak him into the back of the hospital.”
He looked at me, confused. “Huh?”
I nodded and pulled off my gloves. I took out a vial and syringe and filled it with as much pain medication as I thought Darnell could handle without losing consciousness. He needed to keep breathing. I wrapped his wound to stop the bleeding and tried to secure his arm against his chest. He moaned, but let me. I spoke hurriedly, a plan forming as I moved. “Do you have a sled or something like that?”
“Yeah, Ruby-D, we take it up to our vacation cabin every winter,” Paul snapped.
“Are you going to work with me, or not, Paul? I need something to carry Darnell, like a stretcher.”
Tiny raised his hand like he was in school. I stared at him. “Yes, Tiny?”
He pointed. “Uh, how about an ironing board?”
“Perfect, that’s perfect. Can you help me get him on there?”
Paul, Tiny, and Maddie helped me slide Darnell onto the ironing board. I used two-inch tape to secure him. Darnell’s face crinkled with pain, and I worried again about shock.
Paul took one end, Tiny took the other. Straining, Paul looked like the kid that he was. “How are we gonna do this?”
I nodded towards the living room.
“We’re gonna need a diversion. Can your friends handle that?”
Tiny chuckled, a low deep sound from his barrel chest. “Can we make a diversion…that’s funny.”
****
Paul pulled behind the hospital slowly, and parked near the exit used for the back stairwells. Thankfully, I was not in the trunk this time and could help with directions. This overflow parking area was rarely used, and I knew from Renee’s smoking days that the nurses used a brick to keep the door propped open. The camera over that door wasn’t working. Mike, the security guard, often complained about how he believed the nurses sabotaged it regularly. I wanted a clear path to the elevators.
Paul turned off the car and turned to face me in the back seat. I sat in the foot well with Darnell’s ironing board gurney propped on my knee. Tiny, in the front passenger seat turned to look at me expectantly. “Now what?”
I pointed to the camera over the propped open door. “That camera isn’t online in the security booth, but the one in the hallway is. W
e need to get past that camera and into the elevators without anyone noticing.”
“Have you lost your mind, Doc? We can’t just stroll on in there with a boy taped to an ironing board. Someone will notice that!” Paul’s voice hitched high.
Tiny bobbed his head in agreement.
“Will you just listen to me? The back hall is monitored, but not used. It’s part of the construction area, you know the new Sports Medicine Wing?”
“Oh, yeah.” Paul nodded.
“If we can get Darnell up there, I can set his arm and clean his wound.”
“That’s pretty smart, Doc,” Tiny intoned.
“We’ll see if it works first. Are your friends ready?”
Paul flipped open his cell phone, dialed, and shouted. “Get rockin’!”
We sat in the car, breathless, waiting. I heard the first alarm followed by a second, and then the third within seconds. We scrambled out of the car and ran towards the door. More car alarms, honking, and now confused shouts came from the front of the hospital. Paul’s phone rang. He flipped it and put it to his ear.
“Good, keep them busy,” Paul said and then turned to me. “The security guy is running around out front.”
I ran to the back door and pulled it open. “Go. Go. Go.”
They hauled Darnell in, and then followed me down the hall.
I sprinted for the elevators and hit the button. I watched the floor number light up as the elevator descended. It dinged open, and I turned to the boys. “Come on, quickly.”
We rode the elevator, holding our breath every time it seemed like the doors would open on a floor. Luckily, they didn’t, and we came out on the construction floor. I poked my head out, scanned for any guards, and then waved for Paul and Tiny to follow me.
Unfinished walls etched out a series of alcoves. Piles of construction materials littered the floor and work tables. Dust flurried through the room on shafts of light beaming through the dirty windows.
“Over here, on this table,” I urged.
They set Darnell down and I checked his vitals. I could barely stand being this close to real medical help without getting him what he really needed. I thought about nerve damage and infection.
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