Ash: Devil's Crucifix MC (49 page)

Chapter 27

The first time Shayla woke was  confusion and chaos. The gurney she was on landed on the ground outside of the ambulance and medics were rushing her into the emergency room doors. Doctors were suddenly in her face with flashlights and barking orders. Ceiling lights rolled by above her as she heard words like 'STAT' and 'Surgery'. The pain in her shoulder throbbed and burned.

The next time she woke was in a room with crying women, and then Sydney was there, holding her hand.

"Shayla?" Sydney asked softly. "Shayla? Are you awake baby?"

She met her wife's eyes and nodded. She tried to speak, but her throat was too dry. She forced the word "Thirsty."

Sydney offered her a cup of water with a bendy-straw. She sipped, and then nodded as relief swelled in her throat.

"Hospital?" she asked Sydney.

"Yes," Sydney agreed. "They got the bullet out. It took a while because it was fragmented."

"There goes our Italian photo-shoot," she sighed with what she hoped was a playful grin.

Sydney looked confused for a moment, and then laughed and wiped away some tears.

Sandy and Jill came around to the other side of the bed and Sandy took her hand, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine pixie," she told her.

"After you said you loved me, I thought you died," Sandy blubbered.

"I said I loved you, to let you know I wasn't going anywhere," she told her princess.

She looked back to Sydney, and asked, "Neil?"

Sydney looked behind her, checking that the door was closed, and then said, "No Neil. Not to anyone else, alright?"

Her mind pieced together the last events before she passed out at the house. "Alright," she answered. "Now, tell me."

Sydney checked the door again, and then said quietly, "He killed the man who shot you, and then left on his trike with that rifle he had hidden in the wall. I think he went after Anton because the news had a story. We're not sure though. The cops are pretty sure someone else was in the house with us, but we've kept quiet."

She processed this, and then told Sydney, "Call our lawyer, right now. Find her." Then to the girls she said, "Good work, but keep it quiet. Don't say anything about Neil. You were visiting with 
us
."

Both of them nodded solemnly and she knew they would do exactly what she asked of them.

It took a little more than an hour for Margaret House, the lawyer that helped them with getting their names changed, to arrive.

"I don't want to talk with them here," Shayla told the older woman.

Margaret nodded her head and then went out to the hallway and talked with the detectives. She left the door open and they could hear her say, "My client is a victim, not a criminal. If you call my office, we'll be glad to come down and make a statement after she is released. We'll only be making a statement however, not subjecting her to any type of examination."

"Look," said the detective, a man in his early forties with balding brown hair and an over-sized gut, "We know someone else was in there with them, and we're pretty sure that he killed a man, which 
is 
a crime. So is obstruction."

"I'm clear on the law detective," Margaret said patiently. "I have a degree and everything. So, unless you intend on arresting any of my clients now, then this conversation is over. Here's my card, call my office and make an appointment for next week. Perhaps Wednesday or Thursday."

"All of them are your clients?" The detective asked suspiciously.

"All of them, and the girls are minors, so you aren't talking to them at all," Margaret told him.

"Fine," said the detective. "Since they aren't involved at all, then they won't be needing police protection from whoever hired a professional killer to shoot up their house. Right?"

Margaret didn't flinch, "That's probably true detective. Now, I'm going to talk with my client for a while and you can go find this killer you are referring to."

"It's more than true," said a deep male voice from behind the detective. "We got her back."

The detective turned and Shayla could see West and Brian standing there.

"Who the fuck are you two supposed to be?" the detective asked.

"Watch your language in front of the girls detective," West growled at him. "We're licensed bodyguards, here's our ID's and our concealed weapons permits. Any further questions can be directed to Shayla's lawyer, because we're just hired hands, and know nothing about what is going on, except that no one, except medical personnel, is allowed in that recovery room. That includes you."

The detective turned back to Margaret, "You be sure to inform your client about obstruction Ms. House. Make sure she understands, because if I find the smallest fraction of evidence that she has answers we need, then I swear to you I'll arrest her."

"Threatening my client will be unhealthy for your career. That, detective, is a promise," Margaret returned.

The detective and the uniformed police officer left, and Margaret came back into the room, "Alright, now, the more I know the more I can help." Then she looked at the girls and added, "But perhaps it should wait?"

Shayla looked to the girls as well and then shook her head, "No, they've both been shot at because of this. They should at least know why." But then she asked Jill, "Have you called your mother yet? Does she know what's going on?"

Jill looked at the floor, "No, we didn't know if we should."

"She shouldn't learn about it on the evening news. So call her now. Tell her what happened and let her know you're alright."

Jill called her mother, Amanda, and told her what happened and that they were alright but that Shayla was hurt and in the hospital. Then she handed her phone to Sandy who talked with her for a while and assured her that she was alright as well and wanted to stay.

When Sandy handed the phone back to Jill, she told Shayla, "My mom is on the way."

"That's good. Sydney and you two should spend the night at your house where it's safe for now," she told her.

"But I want to stay with you," Sandy protested.

"And I love you pixie, but I'm safe. I have two large, protective men outside the door and you should get some rest so you can help me when I go home tomorrow," she told her.

"You'll be home tomorrow?"

"I don't see why not," she told Sandy. "They'll probably want to keep me tonight, just to make sure I'm not going to have any problems, but other than the pain, I'm fine."

"Maybe you should come to our house as well," Sandy told her.

"That might be a good idea. I'll think about that," she said, and then to Jill, "Tell your mom that you two are going to come home with Sydney. There's no reason for her to come down here. I'll see her tomorrow. Alright."

Jill nodded and relayed the information, then said, "Mom said not to be foolish, she's coming down to see you."

"Tell her visiting hours are over, I'm probably going to have a pain pill here in a bit and pass-out. At least I hope I am."

Jill relayed the message again, and then looked at Shayla and nodded her head, as a nurse came in and started fussing around and then took vitals and said her doctor would be in to see her shortly.

Sydney re-took her hand after the doctor left and Jill hung up the phone. Then she asked that West and Brian shut the door and make sure they weren't being listened in on, then she told her lawyer, and the girls, about trying to go straight after dealing cocaine for two years.

After she was done, the girls were wide-eyed and her lawyer thoughtful.

Margaret looked her over and said, "They can get you for obstruction for not telling them about Neil. There's not much I can do for you there if that detective was a serious as he sounded."

"Of all the problems I have, I think that one will have to stand in line," Shayla told her.

Margaret nodded thoughtfully, "Agreed. Alright. I'll get you until Thursday. After that though, you have to come clean and take your lumps if there are any to hand out."

"You're the lawyer, and a good one too. Thanks," she told her. "But I'm fairly certain that if I can't come clean by Monday, then I won't need to worry about it much."

Sydney and Sandy kissed her good-bye and then all of them left. The nurse came back in and gave her a pain pill which she gratefully took, and allowed the pain to show on her face, now that there was no one there to see.

"Neil?" she said to the dark night outside the window. "Where are you baby?"

Chapter 28

Neil fired a 40mm grenade, hitting and opening the front door of Anton's house with a massive pyrotechnic display. Then he sent a barrage of bullets streaming into the opening, and through the front windows. Continuing to send three round bursts into areas of the house, he worked his way from room to room searching for Anton.

Anton wasn't home.

In frustration he yanked the gas-line off the stove and from outside the house, sent another grenade through the front door again. This one did considerably more damage to the house with the gas explosion. He watched for a moment, then started his trike and drove off, heading for the club house.

Halfway there, he pulled over at a gas station and while he was filling his tank he called West, gave him the news of the night, and asked him to watch over the girls at the hospital.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Anton is, do you?" Neil asked, as casually as he could manage.

"Since you are probably out to kill him, as a sworn patch-holder I couldn't tell you that he is at the club, because that would be traitorous. So, I'll just tell you that I don't know," West replied with the same casual voice.

Neil smiled and said, "Well, if you don't know, then you don't know. Can't blame you for not knowing something."

"That was my feelings on the matter as well. Good hunting."

"Thanks," Neil said and broke the connection.

His next phone call was to Detective Selene of Miami Vice, who he talked with briefly, ignoring her introductory flirtations.

"You sure about this Neil?" she asked.

"About the amount? Not really, but it will be enough," he told her.

"No, about going against the club like this. You might be starting more problems than you are solving," she advised.

"I tried to walk away, and gave him two chances already. Now the woman I love is in the hospital, after being shot by a paid assassin. Wasn't even club. This time he goes down, and if I don't get him, you will. Simple as that."

"Alright. I'll be there. Thanks for letting me in on this I guess, though it seems like a shitty thing to say thank you for," Selene told him.

"It will help your career?" he asked.

"Sure it will, but —"

"Then you are welcome. Something good should come out of this mess," he told her.

"She's not dead Neil," Selene told him. "She's fine. It was on the news. She's already in recovery."

"Did they ID the shooter yet?" he asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Simon Grimm. He an assassin with an impeccable reputation until tonight. Word is that he even did wet-work for C.I.A. types, but that's just talk maybe. So, did you kill him?"

"When I left, he was breathing," he lied.

"Death rattles I'll bet. I'm not telling anyone a thing Neil. Not my case and good work if you did. The world is a little brighter with that one gone," she told him.

"It will be brighter yet by sunrise," he told her. "Talk to you later."

"I hope so," she said, before he could break the connection.

His next stop was an all-night home-repair place to pick up ten large packs of mothballs, four large cans of compressed air — the type used to clean computer keyboards — a crowbar, and a plastic crate.

Neil arrived two blocks from the clubhouse at just after ten in the evening. He took the crate of supplies, leaving the rifle wrapped in a blanket on his back seat. With any luck, it would be stolen by the time he was back, saving him the hassle of disposal.

He crossed the street, and then used the crowbar to open up a fake manhole behind the club bar. An alarm would be going off inside Anton's office so he moved quickly, grabbing up the crate, and dropping it down the eight feet to the floor of the tunnel below. Then he pulled out from his jacket one of his thermite grenades, pulled the pin and dropped it into the middle of the mothball pile.

After the massive stink bomb was set, he hurried back across the street, almost reaching the curb before hearing the explosion and seeing the sooty-yellow flame pour up out of the hole into the night. Traffic came to a stop as people gawked at the flame which began to decline rapidly. The heat and explosion likely vaporized the mothballs, so that would insure that no one was going down into that tunnel without vomiting, and that the fire department would definitely investigate — of course the presence of a thermite burn down there would have been enough for an investigation.

Neil called the 911 emergency line, and was told that response was already on the way. As he hung up the phone, he could hear the sirens crawling through the night air.

Just as the Fire Department showed up, he saw Selene and her partner pull up in their unmarked car, with the lights going. He waited by his trike, hoping to see Anton flushed out of the front door and into a waiting car.

The exodus that came from the bar a few moments later was massive. The bar was probably packed since it was Friday night. The stink of the vaporized mothballs pouring into the place out of the trap door in Anton's office would be enough to clear the bar, but seeing that the Fire Department was about to discover a large cache of cocaine down in that tunnel, helped move anyone with a patch on their back out as well. There was no way of tracking Anton through that crowd, and bikes and cars were starting up and taking off as soon as their drivers could put keys in the ignition.

Neil moved back into the shadows, cursing himself for not thinking of this possibility. He could try to pick up the trail back at Anton's house, but decided that would only result in his arrest. He checked the back seat of his trike, and was surprised that the M-16 was right where he left it, wrapped up in the blanket.

Things just weren't working out tonight.

He broke down the M-16 and put it into the storage area under the seat, and then started up his bike and headed for the hospital.