Devil’s in the Details (79 page)

With one last deep breath, I walked towards the front door. When my hand was on the handle, I heard Dani, "He's about to be in the alley in five. Hide in the shadows next to the dumpster. He never checks the shadows like the dumbass he is."

"That's his Achilles heel, isn't it?" I rolled my eyes at my own joke and pulled my sunglasses down before exiting the penthouse.

Clutching the coffee with both hands, I looked at James as he kept talking, this time actually listening to what he was saying. "There's this Colonel Aves I've been helping the OIN investigated. Some mysterious Army Colonel who really has no record, well one that isn't covered in black marker. He supposedly died a handful years back in Syria during a rebel uprising, but then Dani and the one old Navy Admiral with his advisor, showed me pictures of the Colonel bopping around New Jersey."

I furrowed my brow, "It must be that fat bird man Victoria and Dani would mention in their drunken ramblings." I turned to the sidewalk ahead, the building I was staying at was a few steps away. "They have a serious distaste for him."

"I don't blame them. A lot of people do. Including the CIA, MI6, NSA, FBI and any other intelligence agency you can think of. Seems Aves has done his fair share of shitting on everyone." James laughed, "Man, Alex I never thought this spy shit was real, only thought it was for the movies."

I shrugged, "I wished it was only in the movies." I sipped at the hot coffee. I had begun to settle down and listen to James, realizing why Dani had brought him in. He was a sensible honest man who wanted nothing more than to fight crime the best he could. Listening to him talk and tell me the things Victoria had tried to tell me, I felt terrible for not listening to her instead of lashing out at her. I still didn't feel at peace with the metro incident, but after James showed me the case files he had gotten from Metro D.C. police, I found it harder to feel for the four junkies.

Now all I wanted was to see Victoria and apologize.

James suddenly grabbed my arm like he used to when his cop instincts warned him, "Alex, wait."

I looked at him, he had thrown his coffee cup to the ground and reached for his sidearm. "What is it?"

He motioned to the alley in front of us, "I hear someone fighting." He gently shoved me back, "Stay back here, I'm going to take a quick look. Then we’ll head back to the front door, get you inside and safe."

I nodded slowly, tossing my cup to the side I balled my fists and tucked up against the wall and watched James head into the alley.

I heard him shout, "Stop! Police!"

I moved closer when I heard him shout it again, then I heard his gun clatter to the ground with a large bang followed by him making a heavy oomph sound.

Then I heard Victoria's voice shouting at someone, "Leave him alone, it's me you want!"

My feet moved on my own and I ran to the alley, coming around the corner to see James knocked out with blood on his forehead, curled up in a ball next to the brick wall of the alley. I went to run to him, but froze as I also saw Victoria, dressed all in black, facing down a larger man wearing half of a black mask, covering his lower jaw. "Oh, I do want you. The price on your head is far worth more than a stupid lazy cop." He lifted his right hand and pointed a gun right at Victoria. I covered my mouth, preventing a loud gasp to escape. I wanted to run and stop this, but I was frozen by fear.

Victoria suddenly laughed, grabbing his right hand and bending the wrist until it snapped liked a dry twig, the man screamed out as she ripped the gun free. "Achilles, you're a goddamn idiot, always have been."

Her foot shot out, making contact with the man's kneecaps, dislocating both of them in a blink of the eye, rendering the man useless.

I watched as she stripped the guns into pieces, throwing each piece around the alley. She moved to the man who was now on his knees, "It's a shame the old lady thought you were the best to come after me, I will make sure he gets the best parts of you." She quickly grabbed his other arm, snapping it like she had the first.

"Fuck you, Chimera." He then drew his eyes to move past Victoria and fall on me standing like a damn gawking fool at the entrance of the alley. He laughed, raising his chin my way, "Looks like we have an audience."

Victoria turned slowly my way, her hard cloudy grey eyes landing on me without showing a hint of emotion, "Alex, get out of here! Now!"

I shook my head, "Not without you." I swallowed hard, fighting the need to scream, vomit. I took one step towards her when I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me, lifting me up as a raspy female voice spoke against my ear.

"Oh Chimera and Achilles, didn't even notice me while you two were playing in your sandbox like shitty little children." The arms pulled me tighter as I clawed at them to free me. "Looks like I'm about to collect big time from the old lady." The voice against my ear, sounded eerily familiar, but I was in too much of a panic to think clearly and place it with a face.

Victoria stood up straight, "Dante, put her down. If you don't, you'll regret it." Victoria met my eyes, the clouds shifting away for a split second to show a minute amount of fear.

"I will in a second, maybe, but first let's dispose of the trash." The woman dropped me to the ground and I fell to my knees. I lurched to get to my feet, but was met with a hard backhand that knock me woozy and back to the ground. I could barely see what was going on as the woman, also dressed in black with dark black hair in a tight bun, removed a small silenced handgun. My head wouldn't allow me to stand up or get my limbs to move, but I could still see what was going on.

She didn't blink an eye as she fired three shots right into the laughing man's head, silencing his laughter immediately. The smoke barely hit the air when she attacked Victoria, striking her hard across the right cheek with the butt. Victoria stumbled back, but came up hard with a side angle kick to the leg, making the woman buckle. "Dante, leave now before I kill you."

The woman laughed, kicking Victoria in the stomach, "And miss out on a nine million dollar pay out?" She barreled into Victoria, shoving her hard against the brick wall, "Not a chance sweetheart."

The back of Victoria's head hit the brick with a loud crack, drawing a reaction out of me, "Stop it! You're hurting her!"

I rolled to my side, cringing as my head felt like it had split open. I pawed at the ground, slipping on a puddle, "Stop it!" I shouted again and looked up. I was able to focus the other woman’s features, I squinted harder as my gut began screaming at me.

Victoria turned to the sound of my voice, and it was the split second her opponent needed.

I only saw the quick glint of the blade before it was buried into Victoria's stomach with so much force I heard her grunt as she slammed against the brick wall again. I screamed, trying to throw the other woman off but it didn't work, I kept screaming and forcing my body to move.

"NO!" I scrambled harder, gathering myself to my feet, looking up to see the bloodied blade leave her and slam back in. "NO!"

The other woman started laughing as she leaned against Victoria's ear, whispering something I couldn't make out, before shoving the blade in once more and dragging the blade upwards, in what I knew to be a deadly stroke.

When I finally was on my feet, the woman stepped away from Victoria, letting her slide to the ground, clutching at the blood pouring out of her stomach. The woman pulled a hood over her head, snapped a picture with a cell phone of Victoria and the other man on the ground and ran out of the alley, only pausing to look down at me, "You're lucky, she was worth more dead then you are alive."

That’s when I saw her full face in the street light. Victoria’s killer was that creepy EMT, Angela Diablo. She stared at me for a second as I struggled to get up, my vision blurry and the world still spinning. “Who the fuck are you? Is this why you’ve been following me?” I rasped the words out, “Why have you done this?” I found the air to raise my voice and reach out towards the woman.

I went to grab the Diablo's arm, but she easily shoved me away. She bent down and looked at me, “Let this go, nurse Ivers.” She shoved me back on my ass and ran out of the alley. Leaving me to look at Victoria.

What I saw shattered me, not only for the fact that I was a nurse and I had seen this similar scene a thousand times and they all had one outcome, but because it was Victoria. I rushed towards her, stripping off my coat and falling to my knees in front of her. I shoved my balled up coat against the blood pouring out from the gash in her jacket. "Victoria, look at me, please."

Victoria was turning pale, slipping into shock with every breath. The blow to her head had disoriented her. I shouted at her as I saw her eyes roll into the back of her head. Her breathing was raggedy and bubbly, blood was filling her lungs quickly. I shook my head, fighting the nurse trying to tell me there was no hope in what was before me and reached for her cheek to get her to look at me.

Her skin was cooling with every second, "Oh god, no! Victoria, please, look at me." I fumbled for the zipper on her jacket and tugged it down, revealing exactly what I feared was underneath.

I gasped out a choked sob, "Oh fuck no." There was a large, precise laceration from her belly button up to the base of her sternum. With a surgeon's precision, the other woman had sliced open Victoria's major abdominal artery. She was bleeding out faster than I could stop it. I began uncontrollably crying, shoving my hands over the wound trying to push the blood that was pouring out, back into her body. "You cannot do this! You cannot die on me!" I shouted at Victoria, she was unresponsive, her eyes wobbling around in her head. Looking around at the sound of my voice but never looking directly at me. I knew the truth. The hard cold scientific truth of this injury and what the only outcome could be, but I wouldn't accept it. I could save her, I had to save her.

I grabbed her face again, slapping her cheek to get her to look at me, wake up out of the shock she was falling in. "Victoria, it's Alex, please look at me. Wake up and help me." I sobbed, looking over my shoulder at the sound of a groan. James was waking up, reaching for his head.

"James! I need help! Call an ambulance, Victoria’s been stabbed and she doesn't have time!" I turned back to Victoria, her slate grey eyes latched on mine groggily before her head fell to her chest. "No, no, no, no. Oh god no, don't do this." I shouted again for James to hurry.

He got to his feet and rushed to me, looking down at the blood covering my hands, he whispered out, "Oh God." And pulled out his cell phone, shouting that he was a NYPD Sergeant and he some sort of a ten code and that he needed an ambulance and more police units immediately. He then placed his hands on top of mine, helping me to stanch the never-ending blood that was rushing out of Victoria. "Alex, they’re coming, but I don’t think she has enough time."

"Don't you dare say it!" I looked up at him through blurry eyes, I could hear the sirens in the distance getting closer, "She'll make it, she has to. She will." I nodded at him, crying harder as I turned back to Victoria, lifting her head so I could look at her, "I have to tell you I'm sorry, for everything." I whispered it, "Please, Victoria. Stay with me."

Everything became muted and distant, as if I was really watching from the sidelines. The ambulance showed up and I was shoved to the side as paramedics and police officers arrived. Scooping Victoria's limp, pale body onto a stretcher. They covered her stomach with rolls of gauze, trying to create pressure to get the bleeding to stop. I was pushed into James’s arms and he pulled me to the entrance of the alley as more police officers swarmed the lifeless body of the man with bullet holes in his forehead.

"Alex, we should get out of here. I'll tell the detective to come find us at the hospital." James held my cheeks, looking in my eyes, "She's going to be okay."

I sobbed, looking over his shoulder to see the back of the ambulance doors close. A paramedic climbed on top of Victoria to start chest compressions. I fell forward into James arms, sobbing and screaming as I buried my face into his chest. He held me for a second, before picking me up and carrying me to the closest NYPD patrol car. James set me in the passenger seat in a ball and took off after the ambulance, full lights and sirens blaring.

James half carried me, half walked me into the emergency room. He waved at a nurse, "Hey, unit 745 brought in a female with a stab wound, I need to know where she is." He flashed his badge when the nurse gave him a shitty look. She rolled her eyes and pointed down the hall, "Trauma bay three, they're still working on her."