The Court Chronicles (A Blog Novella) - Part III, Chapter 17

Chapter 16

"Jay? Where the hell are you?" Nicole was pissed off and fed up with Jay flaking on her for their weekly "date night".

"Baby, I'm in a tough spot, right now."

"What, between a couple of whores?" Nicole was tired of his excuses.

"Huh? No, I got helicopters looking to kill me," Jay looked over his head to double check on the chopper. He knew how lucky he was to find this bunker and get away from Vazquez' place. He also knew that they weren't far behind and he was a dead man if they caught up to him. All he had was a six chambered revolver and 4 shots left, but he had to work with what he had. Now he tries to call Nicole to explain why he won't be there for their date, yet again, and she's giving him a hard time.

"Look, Jay, this is the third time you've canceled and it's not cool. You need to get your ass here now!"

"I know, but I'm kind of in Mexico right now."

"What the hell does 'kind of' in Mexico mean?"

"That I won't be home anytime soon," Jay hears a car headed towards him and a helicopter.

"You know what, don't bother coming home!" Nicole flips her phone closed and hangs up on Jay. She was fed up with his antics. It was always something with that asshole. The thing is that if Jay manned up and stood up to Garret every once in a while, Nicole wouldn't be so bent out of shape. Mexico? What the hell is he still doing in Mexico? He told her they had a drop and that he'd be back two days ago.

A knock at the door.

Who the hell is that? Nobody ever visits them and Nicole wasn't expecting any company. "Who is it?" Nicole asks.

"Pizza delivery!"

"Sorry, you have the wrong apartment," Nicole replied.

"Please, ma'am, could you help me find the right address?"

Nicole wasn't an idiot and knew better than to open the door for a complete stranger. She walked up to the door and looked through the peep hole. The guy on the other side was definitely dressed like a pizza guy with pie in hand and everything, but in this neighborhood, Nicole couldn't risk opening the door. "Just tell me where you need to be through the door."

"I'm looking for 2B," replied the pizza man.

"That's on the floor below us."

"What? I couldn't understand you," said the pizza man.

Nicole wasn't falling for that old trick. "Look, I'm sorry I can't help you."

"Just open the door," pleaded the pizza man.

That's a little creepy, thought Nicole, don't pizza delivery guys have the client's phone numbers? Nicole just ignored the man's request and went into the bathroom. She turned on the faucet to wash the day off her face. As she grabbed for a towel to dry her face, she heard a loud THUMP! She turned towards the bathroom door which gave her a clear view to the front door.

THUMP! THUMP!

Yeah, someone was trying to break down that door. Nicole was surprised at how calm she was, but in the back of her mind, she always figured something like this would happen with the line of work Jay was mixed up in.

THUMP!

She figured she had a good minute before that door broke down and someone came after her. Plenty of time, but what to do? Should she grab the gun Jay thinks she doesn't know about and position herself to shoot whoever it is crashed through that door? Does she escape out of the bedroom window and run? Or does she just take her chances and hide? Well, there was really only one option Nicole was going to take. She swiftly makes her way to the bedroom and into the closet where Jay keeps the gun. She's held it a couple of times, but hasn't actually mustered enough courage to fire it yet.

THUMP!

She opens the box and grabs the revolver. She checks the cylinder to make sure she has some rounds. She knew it wasn't safe to keep a loaded revolver in the house, but there was no time to give that any thought. She pulls open her nightstand and grabs her earplugs, Jay has a mean snoring problem and without earplugs, she would never get any sleep. She quickly and quietly makes her way to the front door. She positions herself about 5 feet away.

THUMP!

Nicole cocks the revolver hammer and she can hear the cylinder rotate and the chamber snap into position. With her finger firmly on the trigger she waits.

CRASH!

The pizza man crashes through the front door.

BANG!

****************************************************************

Jay saw the Jeep rollover several times. He had no idea who was driving it and if they were after him. The helicopter hovered above the overturned vehicle. Jay was as still as he could be and even kept his breathing to a minimum.

Back in the chopper, Vazquez and his cronie looked down on the Jeep.

"¿Que hacemos?" asked the cronie.

Vazquez looked lost in his thoughts. All he could think about was that one last time he saw his daughter as a little girl. Now he was chasing her down and he had no idea if she was dead or alive in that Jeep. He knew the only thing he needed to do was go back to his place and let her go. He knew she didn't understand why he did what he did, but why should she? All she wanted was her father to be around and the fact was, he wasn't.

"Vamos," ordered Vazquez.

The cronie looked surprised because his boss usually didn't leave things to chance and would shoot a couple of rounds into the Jeep to make sure whoever they were chasing never came back. But he also knew to never question his boss and he turned the chopper around and headed back towards headquarters.

Inside the Jeep, Garret rubbed his forehead. He hit the dashboard pretty hard. He instantly forgot about his pain and turned towards Veronica. She was lying there unconscious. Garret listened for the helicopter and it seemed to be going away from them. Is it possible Vazquez is letting them go? Who cares, Garret needs to get to Veronica and make sure she's not seriously hurt. He slides himself out of the Jeep and rushes over to Veronica's side.

"Veronica, are you okay?" Garret searches for a pulse, found it! Okay, she's breathing and isn't pale. Garret visually searched Veronica for any obvious wounds. She had a nasty head wound from the crash and was bleeding. Garret took his shirt off and ripped it in half. He wrapped it around Veronica's head to stop the bleeding. He needed to get her out of this Jeep and lay her down in a more comfortable position. But he wasn't sure if he should move her and finally made the decision to since she was still breathing and didn't look as if she had broken anything.

He very carefully and slowly slid her out of the Jeep and onto the soft sand. He sat down beside her and rested her head in his lap. They had a vehicle that no longer worked and were miles from any sign of civilization.

Garret looked around and kept his cool as best as he could. In the distance he spotted something headed towards them. It looked like a person, but who?