Chapter 18

Garret rushes over to Veronica’s side to confirm what Jay has just told him. He was right, there was a small drop of blood seeping out of Veronica’s ear. Garret knew there wasn’t much time left and they needed to do something now. He looked at the CB radio to call for help, but that was risky because he knew Vazquez and his men would be listening.

“Here,” says Jay as he hands Garret his cell phone. Garret didn’t know whether to hit him for not suggesting this earlier or hug him for being able to hold on and keep track of his cell phone for this long.

No time for that, Garret dialed the International Operator, it rang once, twice. Come on, pick up! The operator finally picked up and Garret cut her off mid speech. “We need help, fast! I have an unconscious woman and she’s bleeding from her ear.”

“I’ll patch you through to Emergency Dispatch.”

“What is your emergency?” the operator took what felt like forever to get on the line.

“We need help, she’s unconscious and bleeding!”

“Sir, slow down, where are you located?”

“Shouldn’t you know that?!? All I see is miles of sand! Please send help!” the Operator was testing Garret’s patience.

“Okay, I’m sending your coordinates to our air unit. ETA 10 minutes,” responded the Operator.

“What do I do? Is there anything I can do to help her?” asked Garret.

The Operator goes into a series of questions: Is she breathing? Have you moved her? Does she have a head injury?, etc.

Garret answered them all, but he just wanted to help Veronica.

“Okay, put her in recovery position until the paramedics arrive and cover her with a blanket or jacket.”

As the Operator walked Garret through how to put Veronica into Recovery Position, Jay felt helpless. He sat there looking at his best friend and boss do everything in his power to save this woman. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this; they were supposed to be at The Hideout having half off drinks and free tacos right now. Jay should be signing himself up to sing “Baby Got Back” karaoke.

It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

Just as Jay started to drift more and more into his daydream, a helicopter headed towards them interrupted his thoughts.

The helicopter ride went by in a flash and it seemed like they were at the hospital in no time. Garret and Jay waited in the lobby for any kind of news. Jay sat on a chair and watched the small television with some Spanish novella he didn’t recognize. Garret paced back and forth, not knowing what else to do.

“Boss, you have to relax. They’ll come give us an update when there’s something to update on. Sit down.”

“I know, but I can’t just sit still knowing that she’s unconscious. Who knows what she’s going through right now,” Garret wasn’t the most patient man in the world and this hospital was not working with him.

Finally the doctor came out to the lobby and Jay and Garret stood up. Garret tried to read the doctor’s face to see what kind of news he was about to get. The doctor had one of the best poker faces Garret had ever seen.

“¿Quien es el esposo?” asked the doctor.

“English is better for us, doctor,” responded Jay.

The doctor looked slightly annoyed and spoke in broken English, “Who is husband?”

“Um, neither one of us is,” answered Garret.

“I sorry, but I can only give information to family.”

“Wait, you can’t tell us anything because we’re not family?” asked Garret.

“I’m so sorry, it’s policy,” responded the doctor.

Garret couldn’t believe his ears, the woman he had just become so close to was lying in the hospital and he couldn’t get a simple update on her. “Please, doctor, you have to tell me something.”

“Bring family and then I can tell them,” the doctor turned and left Jay and Garret in the lobby with no answers.

“That’s such bullshit!” said Garret.

“Relax, boss, let’s stay positive and see where we go from here. We at least know she was breathing when she was admitted, right?” Jay was trying to keep Garret calm and rational.
Garret sat down and tried to relax himself, “You’re right, we need to think.”

Jay knew that was an understatement. They were in a foreign hospital and had no way of getting back to the States. There was a woman they barely knew in a hospital hanging on to her life by a thread and they had no money.

“Boss, I think it’s better if we just split,” Jay was expecting Garret to go off on him, but nothing happened. Garret just sat there and said nothing at all. “Boss, you okay?”

“I think you might be right, Jay. The best thing for us to do is leave her here. They won’t release her into our care anyway.”

Garret knew that they had to leave and get themselves situated. Veronica, as much as it hurt him, was on her own at this point. He did everything he could, right? He got her to a hospital and she could get help here. He’ll catch up with her when she gets back. The longer they stay in Mexico the more danger they’re putting themselves in.

Garret walks up to the receptionist and asks for a pen and paper. He jots down a note to Veronica and asks the receptionist to deliver it for him.

“Gracias,” then Garret turns to Jay and says, “Let’s go.”

Jay and Garret walk out the hospital doors and disappear.

The hospital was quiet and the only thing to be heard was the clickity clack of the computer keyboards.

The doors to the hospital opened and the receptionist looked up. As soon as she saw who had just came in to the hospital, terror washed over her face.

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?