"Cowboys, Pair of Kings"
Copyright 2007 Penn O'Hara
T
Usual disclaimers apply.
Don't blame my beta if I've made any mistakes. I played with it some after she sent it back. Sorry, g-gal, but it cried out for more tweaking. Thanks for finding those downunder discrepancies and particularly, thank you for helping with Alex' voice.
oOo
Chapter Fourteen
Unable to save herself, Alex fell on her back, splaying her arms to prevent her head cracking onto the concrete. Her gun flew from her grasp and the fire exit door shut with a thump.
"Get out of here!" a voice hissed."Now!"
A body slammed on top of her and a flash of silver caught the twilight. Alex twisted to her left, hearing a metallic grate against the concrete beside her. Pushing hard she knocked away the next threat from the sliver of steel. It bounced away with a rattle and scrape.
Zeroing in on the pale face above her, Alex recognized the smooth features of Nicole Wallace, triumphant in her control. She wore a nurse's uniform, her hair bound back from her face, smiling inanely at Alex as if they were sharing a mutual rest on the rooftop. Stars sprinkled within the black backdrop behind her as nightfall became complete, a near full moon beginning its reign.
"You don't want to be fighting me, Alex," she said sweetly, "you want to be listening."
"Listen to this," Alex gritted, then thrust upward, dislodging the woman. Poised on her hands and knees, Alex looked desperately for her gun before Nicole was on top of her again. Ready for her, Alex pushed upward and to the side and Nicole was flung onto her back. Crab-walking in a hasty grid around the fire exit, Alex' hands searched for her weapon in the near-dark.
The unmistakable click of a cocked gun froze her with her hands flat on the concrete. Raising her eyes slowly, she looked into the barrel of a Glock 17. Bobby's gun. If Nicole had both Bobby's phone and his gun…
"Where is he?" Alex' eyes traveled up Nicole's locked arm to the huge smile on her face.
"I told you, you should be listening to me, not fighting me. Now you ask the pertinent questions when it's too late." Nicole quickly glanced to the side, her aim unwavering. Another glance to the other side and her face lit up. With Alex still in her gun sight, Nicole side-walked slowly toward the electrical switchbox, transferred the gun to her left hand and swiftly hunkered down to pick up an object that caught and threw back the moonlight in an elongated spark.
"A beauty, isn't it?" Nicole crooned, holding the knife up for Alex to see. "A stiletto. Elegant, deadly and…" A flick of her right wrist and the stiletto had disappeared within the uniform Nicole wore. "…easily hidden."
Both her hands grasping the gun, Nicole started to walk toward Alex, who braced herself to either dodge or fight.
"Tell me what happened to Bobby, Nicole." Her heart hammering, Alex made her voice as neutral as possible, refusing to give Nicole the satisfaction of acceding defeat.
Nicole pretended to consider her request, then shook her head. "No, I offered before. You rejected my small favor." Nicole took another step forward until she was only about two feet away, Bobby's gun pointed at Alex' heart.
Alex couldn't dodge a bullet at such close range and considering the ease with which Nicole held the gun, she didn't doubt the other woman's skill. Any attack toward Nicole would precipitate the gun going off.
She waited. She had to give Nicole the first move.
The air-conditioning units hummed with their same steady drone, the moon drifted higher, more stars pierced the velvet of the night, and Alex waited.
"Use that gun, Nicole, and the whole squad'll swarm the stairs on their way up. You'll never make it down."
Nicole's smile ended in her eyes as an excited glitter. Her right hand dropped from the gun, her left cupping it with the same ease. Nicole was clearing her right hand, making it free for…
The stiletto!
"Elegant, deadly and…"
In her hand.
Alex saw the flash against the moonlight and flung herself to the right in an awkward twist that clawed at her spine and threw her balance. Rolling as soon as her hip hit the concrete, Alex ignored the jarring pain and planted her hands and feet to push herself upright again. Eyes raised, head low, Alex barreled into Nicole's knees and took her down.
The other woman shrieked in fury and her body twisted beneath Alex like a crocodile in a death roll. Alex heard the unmistakable clatter of a gun on concrete and lunged for the sound. This time her hand closed over the smooth, cool metal of Bobby's Glock. She thrust herself back onto her feet and stood over Nicole, the gun aimed between the other woman's eyes.
Nicole froze, her chest heaving, fingers twitching on the stiletto still in her right hand.
oOo
On his side, the crude bandage jammed against the wound in his side, Bobby shook his head clear of the waves of agony mingled with thick, tilting dizziness. He started a mantra that would give him the resolve to stay conscious.
Get out and warn Alex. Get out and warn Alex.
Dragging his resisting, pain-wracked body a mere inch took all his strength and he collapsed again to the floor.
Not good enough, Goren!
Get out and warn Alex!
He channeled all he had into another push toward the X-ray clinic exit.
"I…gotta…warn…Alex."
oOo
His dark head on the white pillow was at peace, his mind seemingly untroubled, whereas it had to be furiously mending a traumatized body. Even though their relationship was new, Carolyn expected him to wake and grin and roll over and…
Carolyn looked up from Mike's inert body in the hospital bed as Nurse Bates touched her gently on the shoulder.
"Go get yourself some coffee and something to eat, Detective," the nurse said. "Stretch your legs. I'll look after him until you get back."
"I don't want him to wake up and not have someone he knows—"
"I understand, but it won't be for a good few hours yet. You've got plenty of time."
Carolyn leaned in and stroked a hand across the bed sheet lying on Mike's chest. "You're wrong, Nurse. This has brought home to me how little time we've got."
The nurse bent down and twitched the sheet higher. "He's more to you than a partner?"
Carolyn nodded numbly. "A lot more. I just realized how much."
"Then I'll look after him doubly well. There's a cafeteria on the ground floor. I suggest you make use of it."
Realizing Nurse Bates wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, Carolyn reluctantly pushed herself to her feet, bent over Mike for another soft kiss to his lips and stepped back.
"I'll leave, Nurse, but it won't be for a coffee break." Nicole still had to be found. "Keep him safe," she said fiercely.
"I will."
Carolyn dragged her feet out of the ward and down the corridor toward the elevator. Within seconds of pressing the call button, the door opened and Carolyn took the car to the ground floor. Because she didn't know where Bobby and Alex had searched, she figured she'd start at the ground floor and work her way up.
With the receptionist counter and restrooms to her left, Carolyn decided to start to her right. Striding down the corridor, she spied a hurrying figure in front of her that looked familiar. Carolyn quickened her steps to catch up, but the woman darted down another corridor, still with Carolyn in pursuit. Another turn and Carolyn recognized the woman fumbling with keys at the door beneath a shingle designating the room as an x-ray clinic.
The woman disappeared inside and Carolyn broke into a trot.
Scoping the room, she saw Bree Archer at the clinic's inner door. "Ms Archer! What—?"
"Detective!" Archer took a step back from the door in shock, but recovered quickly, shutting the door and turning to face Carolyn. "Thank God! Someone I know. I've found myself stuck in this hospital in some sort of lock-down and no idea why—"
"How did you get to the hospital?" Carolyn demanded. "I left you on the other side of the bridge."
Archer stepped away from the door, and joined Carolyn in the middle of the reception area. "The officers on the bridge said the ferry wounded were brought here. I'm accredited in First Aid so I came to help if I could. Can I help you with anything?"
Carolyn frowned, not buying Archer's explanation for being there. "I was looking for the cafeteria," she lied.
"That's easy. Go back the way you've come and turn right at the corner. You've got a choice—" Archer walked toward Carolyn, ushering her out, the urgency in her actions and voice even more suspicious.
"I think I'll look in here first. Stay where you are," Carolyn said, dodging her and closed her hand around the handle of the door Archer had just closed.
"This isn't working," Archer said, disappearing down the corridor.
In a snap decision, Carolyn let her go, deeming Archer's interest in the room more important than apprehending the Australian. She pushed open the door.
Carolyn froze at the sight of Bobby on the floor awash in a pool of blood.
oOo
Allowing the tension to escape from her in a sibilant hiss, Alex held the gun steady, calculating the odds of winning a duel between a bullet and a knife. She concluded the bullet would win, but the stiletto left in her stomach would not be something from which she would easily recover. It wasn't a case of avoiding the triangular-shaped blade but presenting a non-fatal target to it.
Conscious of the manic glitter in Wallace's eyes, Alex wished she had some of Bobby's psychological edge to talk Nicole down.
"It's over, Nicole. You're going down. Either with a bullet in you or without. I know what I'd choose."
"That's your problem, Alex. You and I are poles apart. I would have thought you'd be more interested in getting back down to save Bobby."
"What have you done to him?!" Tiring of Nicole's taunts, Alex' control slipped.
"Me to know, you to find out," Nicole trilled.
Seeing Nicole's arm bunch, Alex' finger squeezed the trigger.
oOo
Carolyn tore out of the x-ray room and down the corridor shouting as she went.
"Officer down! Officer down!"
Bursting into the foyer, she yelled at the receptionist behind the counter. "Get a doctor to the x-ray room! And medical cart! Now!"
Running back the way she'd come, she pulled out her cell and dialed Eames' number. She barely heard it ring as she retraced her steps and fell to her knees beside Bobby. He was clutching a bloodied bundle of material to him with slack fingers. Checking for a pulse at his neck and balancing her cell between her shoulder and ear, she put what pressure she could on the material, realizing he had been trying to staunch the flow of blood from his wound.
A faint pulse. Thank God!
There was a flurry of movement behind her and a doctor rushed into the room, his coat billowing behind him. A nurse followed and Carolyn gave them room, still holding the cloth to Bobby's side. Eames' phone went to voice mail and Carolyn snapped her phone shut.
Damn!
"We've got it now, Detective," the doctor urgently said, and Carolyn reluctantly got to her feet.
She wanted to stay, but Nicole was still on the loose and Bree Archer was also suspect. And she needed to find out why Alex wasn't answering her phone. Torn by indecision, Carolyn looked down at his lifeless body.
They'll look after you, Bobby. I'm sorry. I've got to go.
Pushing past more medical personnel as she headed out of the x-ray room, Carolyn rounded up two officers drawn by the activity, hurriedly explaining as she went.
"We've got another suspect. A slim red-head, also Australian, 'bout five foot ten, in her forties. Last seen leaving the x-ray room. I want her apprehended for questioning. I don't know if she's armed, but I'd treat her with the same caution as Wallace. Let Silvera know and she can alert the rest of the team."
"Where are you—?"
Carolyn barely looked at the officer as she headed toward the stairwell. "Detective Eames isn't answering her phone. I want to know why."
Taking the flight of steps in bounds, Carolyn soon reached the door to the first floor. Coming out near the nurse's station, she called to the nurse on duty.
"Is Detective Eames on this floor?"
A quick shake of the nurse's head convinced Carolyn that the nurse didn't even need to think about it. She knew who Carolyn was talking about but she didn't know where she was.
Carolyn paused, and because she couldn't not ask, "Detective Logan. How is—?"
The nurse smiled. "Resting. Nurse Bates is guarding him. That's all you need to know to not worry."
Carolyn nodded in gratitude, then ducked back into the stairwell and climbed higher.
She asked the nurse manning the second floor for Alex' whereabouts, and received the same negative.
Back on the stairs, she heard a gunshot, followed quickly by another. Her legs pumping, she pushed herself higher toward the sound. Doors above her were opening and more police joined her on the stairs, a ribbon of officers spreading toward the roof.
Shouts were heard above and when Carolyn finally burst through the roof exit, she found officers milling around a fallen body with blonde hair.
Her heart in her throat, Carolyn pushed through the throng and found it wasn't Alex, but Nicole Wallace.
"She's alive," a voice from behind her said.
Snapping around, she saw Alex with a grim look on her face. Carolyn nodded with relief. It wasn't her place to say too much or make judgments yet. Her eyes scoured Alex for wounds or bruises.
"I'm okay," Alex said. "She came at me with a knife. I immobilized her. A shot to the shoulder and leg."
Carolyn nodded again, understanding Alex' deadpan description of the events. The professional had kicked in. This was just another dangerous perp apprehended.
"I don't think this is the end of it," Carolyn said. "Bree Archer is here and behaving suspiciously. And Bobby…" She faltered as Alex' brows went up. "He's been injured. The doctors are with him on the ground floor—"
"Shit! Nicole said, but I didn't believe— I thought she was just saying that to—"Alex wheeled around and disappeared through the roof exit.
Carolyn turned back to the unconscious body of Nicole, bleeding from two wounds.
Probably fainted, she thought, feeling no pity for the inert woman. Try a taste of your own medicine, Nicole.
She respected Alex for not mortally wounding Nicole. After what the woman did to Mike, Carolyn wondered if she would be so generous. And Nicole had probably been responsible for Bobby's injuries.
"I'll go get a doctor. Poor guys. They're being overworked tonight." Carolyn sighed heavily. "When the medics are finished with her, I want two guards on her around the clock," she ordered the officers still bent over Nicole, then left the roof.
She still had to find Archer.
oOo
By the time Alex hit the ground floor, Bobby was on a gurney in the E.R. Alex was directed there by the receptionist, her heart in her throat, and palms clammy. She knew he was okay. Anything else and she would have felt it.
Using her badge to get past the E.R.'s watchdogs, Alex got close enough to the gurney to see Bobby lying there, pale, his mouth twisted in pain even while unconscious, with the doctors working on him with animated urgency.
I got her for you, Bobby. You'll never have to worry about her again.
Alex started to tremble, huge shudders she couldn't control. A wave of dizziness doubled her over, and she thrust a hand out for something to keep her on her feet.
I got her for you. Now, you stay alive for me.
oOo
tbc…